Wednesday, 29 March 2017
On 05:42 by admin No comments
The university says it discovered USB key-logging devices on six classroom computers across three university buildings.
Carleton
says staff discovered the devices last week during what it called a
routine classroom inspection, but did not indicate how long they had
been in place.
Keystroke-loggers capture
information typed into a computer and can record usernames and passwords
people use to log into various websites and programs.
The
university says it will inspect classroom computers every morning and
throughout the day, adding it’s taking additional steps to strengthen
classroom security.
Carleton
says it’s not aware of anyone having their personal information
breached because of the devices, but urges people to change passwords
all the same.
“These computers are used
solely for instructional purposes in classrooms and do not store any
university, personal or confidential information,” Carleton said in an
internal note to staff. “We have no evidence that any information was
retrieved from these devices or that any university data were
compromised.”
Carleton also urged people
who may have used classroom computers to log on to external sites such
as Google or Dropbox to change the passwords they use for those services
as well.
The
university said the key-logging device could have posed a serious risk
to users not only because of the information they captured, but because
of the inherent difficulty in discovering them.
Antivirus
or anti-malware programs cannot detect them, as they are pieces of
hardware rather than malicious software. Carleton said someone would
have had to physically retrieve the devices to make use of the contents
they collected.
This is not the first time this school year that Carleton has dealt with a security breach.
The
university was the victim of a ransomeware attack in November when an
unknown hacker locked down the bulk of the network requesting a bitcoin
payment to have it released.
The university said it was eventually able to unlock the network without making any payments.
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