by Shalina Chatlani, University Dive
University email addresses with .edu credentials are particularly vulnerable to cyber theft, as students can receive significant discounts in online purchases, according to the Digital Citizen Alliance’s latest report, “Cyber Criminals, College Credentials, and the Dark Web.” Authors looked at the availability email credentials from the 300 largest U.S. colleges and universities, and found that 13,930,176 email addresses and passwords belonging to faculty, staff, students were available for purchase on sites in the dark web, which is an area of the Internet where illicit goods and services can be sold and bought. Acquisition of these credentials can have serious consequences for members of the institution and the institution itself, as they are more often than not being used for illegal activity. The report found that the University of Michigan had the most credentials offered on the dark web, followed by other large state schools — Penn State, University of Minnesota, Michigan State, Ohio State, and University of Illinois.
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