“As this is an active investigation, we are not able to provide further details on the nature of the attack, specific actions taken to address it or how or if decryption keys will be used”, she added.
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“Typically, the attack comes through a phishing email targeted generally at a privileged employee that looks like it’s from somebody important”, said the 25-year veteran of Calgary’s police force.
The University of Calgary is providing updates on the situation through the UC Emergency App. “The actual process of decryption is time-consuming and must be performed with care”.
Linda Dalgetty, vice-president of finances and services at the university, told a news conference Tuesday that the decision was made to pay the ransom in order to regain access to faculty and students’ valuable research.
“It went on to warn that there’s no guarantee paying the controversial ransom will lead to the lost data being recovered”.
“We are a research institution, we are conducting world class research daily and we don’t know what we don’t know in terms of who’s been impacted and the last thing we want to do is lose someone’s life’s work”, she said.
A ransomware attack involves an unknown cyber-attacker locking or encrypting computer networks until a ransom is paid, and when it is, a method of decryption is provided.
“Extraordinarily upset that UCalgary paid a ransom”, Shipley said in a Twitter message.
Crediting the university’s IT department with identifying and isolating the malware, Dalgetty said as of 6 June, the university’s email was back up and running for students and staff.
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There is growing concern over the frequency of ransomware attacks, especially in instances where the victims have no choice but to pay out. As in the case of the University of Calgary, some organisations may prefer to pay the ransom, even amid uncertainty of receiving a decryption key, in fear of losing critical and sensitive data.
