Cyberattacks on Singapore Universities Not 'Work of Casual Hackers'

A couple of Singaporean higher-education institutions suffered separate cyberattacks in April, and officials say it wasn’t “the work of casual hackers.”

The National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University suffered IT network breaches last month, according to Channel NewsAsia. NUS had an “unauthorised intrusion into its IT systems through a single server,” and NTU discovered a malware attack.

Both universities alerted the Cyber Security Agency, a government office that oversees federal cybersecurity functions. Authorities said the hackers may have intended to steal government or research-related information, but no student information was targeted.

The first of its kind on Singapore universities, the digital attacks were “targeted, carefully planned and ‘not the work of casual hackers,’” authorities said, according to Channel NewsAsia.

"We know who did it, and we know what they were after,” CSA CEO David Koh said. "But I cannot reveal this for operational security reasons.”

Both universities said they have taken measures to clean up after the attacks and to isolate affected systems.