Kent State University is among the thousands of institutions, companies and government agencies that have potentially been hit by a cyber-attack linked to Russia. One cyber security researcher says this could end up being one of the biggest hacks in U.S. history.
As many as 18,000 customers may have downloaded tainted software from Texas-based SolarWinds Corp. giving hackers backdoor access to government agencies and scores of sensitive information.
鈥淭his is the Hiroshima of cyber security attacks,鈥� Professor John Nicholas said.
He studies computer information systems and cyber security at the University of Akron.
鈥淏ecause SolarWinds is on just about every company and universities around the world, what they did was they cast a very wide net.鈥�
Nicholas said may not have been a distinct target, but personal information from students and staff, as well as university research, is extremely valuable.
鈥淭his is not a short-term hack to get something specific. This is a long-term game to have things planted on machines worldwide to really hurt the United States and the free world.鈥�
Nicholas said Kent State鈥檚 cyber security team will most likely have to check every single computer university-wide for malware.
In a release, Kent State said it was made aware of the SolarWinds breach on Dec. 14, but said there鈥檚 鈥渘o evidence that indicates the hackers used this back door to access the Kent State network.鈥�
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