Editor's Note: This article was submitted by WGRE News Director Taylor Fleming. The DePauw gives WGRE full credit for this news piece.
DePauw’s Cyber incident was an attack by the Black Suit Ransomware gang. Black Suit claims to have stolen two-hundred fourteen gigabytes of data. The gang operates by stealing and encrypting data on a compromised network. This story was originally reported by The Record, a news organization run by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Last week, DePauw notified many students and parents that their social security numbers and other personal information may have been stolen by an unauthorized third party. This third party has turned out to be Black Suit. According to the US government’s Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center, Black Suit is a relatively new ransomware group that was discovered in early May 2023. However, Black Suit is likely linked to another ransomware group called Royal. Royal was the direct successor of defunct Russian hacker group Conti. The FBI has been assisting DePauw University as they navigate this attack. DePauw has offered impacted students one year of free identity protection services. DePauw University found out about the cyber attack on October 31.