Feng Chia University targeted by ransomware, says response taken

Taichung, June 20 (CNA) Feng Chia University was attacked by the emerging NOVA ransomware group, the school has confirmed, and it said that necessary measures have been taken to prevent the damage from escalating.

The private university, located in the central Taiwan city of Taichung, said in a statement that it received outside intelligence on Tuesday indicating that it was targeted by the NOVA ransomware group.

It immediately responded by launching an investigation and enlisting outside experts to assist with the inquiry, Feng Chia University said, and after nearly 24 hours of looking into the cyberattack, the school felt it had confirmed the cause of the incident and its impact.

Though necessary measures were taken at once to prevent further damage and the investigation has reached some conclusions, many details remain to be clarified, the school said.

The university insisted, however, reports of breaches of alleged employee data and student payment records by some media outlets were inaccurate.

To avoid interfering with the ongoing investigation, the university urged the public not to speculate.

According to media reports, the ransomware group NOVA recently attacked two universities in Asia -- Sun Moon University in South Korea and Feng Chia University in Taiwan.

NOVA unusually specified on the dark web that the attack on Feng Chia University was carried out by "Chinese APTNova Affiliates," raising concerns that the hackers may be backed by a nation-state.

The reports also mentioned that after infiltrating Feng Chia University, NOVA claimed to have obtained 10GB of data, including source code, employee information, student payment records, and database structures.

The group has threatened to publicly release part of the data within 10 days if the university failed to respond to NOVA's demands, the reports said.