College of Hawaii says a ransomware gang breached its Most cancers Heart in August 2025, stealing information of examine members, together with paperwork from the Nineteen Nineties containing Social Safety numbers.
Based in 1907, the College of Hawaii (UH) System now consists of 3 universities and seven neighborhood faculties, in addition to 10 campuses and coaching and analysis facilities throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Its Most cancers Heart is situated within the Kakaʻako district of Honolulu and has over 300 school and workers, in addition to an extra 200 affiliate members.
In a report back to the state legislature, UH mentioned the August 31 incident affected a single analysis challenge on the UH Most cancers Heart, with out impacting scientific operations or affected person care.
Nonetheless, the intensive harm attributable to encrypting the compromised methods delayed UH’s restoration efforts and investigation into the assault’s affect.
“Upon discovery in late August, the affected methods have been instantly disconnected, consultants have been engaged to conduct a complete investigation and exterior stakeholders have been notified,” a UH spokesperson instructed BleepingComputer.
“Throughout this course of, UH made the tough resolution to have interaction with the menace actors as a way to shield people whose info might have been affected. A restricted set of analysis recordsdata (not medical remedy data), together with some containing historic private info, was concerned.”
Preliminary opinions discovered that the majority affected recordsdata have been associated to a selected most cancers examine and contained solely analysis information, with out private identifiers. Nonetheless, additional evaluation uncovered recordsdata from the Nineteen Nineties, containing Social Safety numbers used to determine analysis members earlier than the college adopted completely different identification strategies.
Ransom paid for decryptor, deletion of stolen information
UH added that it additionally labored with exterior cybersecurity consultants to acquire a decryption device and “safe destruction of the data the menace actors illegally obtained” to “shield the people whose senstive info might have been compromised.”
Though the college has but to inform these whose information was stolen within the ransomware assault, UH instructed BleepingComputer that it’ll alert them “as quickly as contact info has been decided.”
In response to the assault, UH has additionally taken measures to safe its methods towards additional breach makes an attempt, together with putting in endpoint safety software program, changing compromised methods, resetting passwords, changing firewall software program, and conducting third-party safety audits of the Most cancers Heart.
In June, Hawaiian Airways additionally disclosed a cyberattack that had disrupted entry to a few of its IT methods, however did not have an effect on flight security.
A number of different universities in the USA have additionally been breached in voice phishing assaults beginning late October, with Princeton College, Harvard College, and the College of Pennsylvania disclosing that their improvement and alumni actions methods have been hacked to steal the information of donors, workers, college students, and alumni.
The Clop ransomware gang additionally breached Harvard College and the College of Pennsylvania once more, stealing delicate private and monetary information from college students, workers, and suppliers in an information theft marketing campaign that exploited an Oracle E-Enterprise Suite (EBS) zero-day vulnerability.
In December, Baker College additionally disclosed an information breach after attackers compromised its community the earlier 12 months and stole the non-public, well being, and monetary info of greater than 53,000 people.
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