by Roger Riddell, Education Dive
A recent report from the Digital Citizens Alliance shows 14 million .edu email addresses and email passwords from the 300 largest higher ed institutions in the U.S. were available for sale on the “Dark Web.” Campus Technology reports that 11 million of those uncovered in the most recent search of the Dark Web were found in the last year, and that many of the user names and passwords were likely compromised when users accessed them in non-academic settings. Hacktivist organization Team GhostShell’s leader, a 25-year-old Romanian hacker nicknamed “Dead-Mellox,” provided researchers behind the report with insights on the vulnerability of .edu addresses, as well as the surplus of valuable data, intellectual property and research that higher ed institutions have compared to commercial businesses or government agencies.
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