Western Sydney University - School of Humanities and Communication Arts Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (HUM1764928995)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Western Sydney University - School of Humanities and Communication Arts breach identified under incident ID HUM1764928995.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Western Sydney University - School of Humanities and Communication Arts's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanitiescommsarts-wsu, the number of followers: 1178, the industry type: Higher Education and the number of employees: 12 employees

After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 768 and after the incident was 689 with a difference of -79 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.

In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Western Sydney University - School of Humanities and Communication Arts and their customers.

Western Sydney University recently reported "Western Sydney University Cyberattack", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

A former student has been charged over an extended series of security breaches linked to the Western Sydney University cyberattack that has affected the institution since 2021.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting University Infrastructure, and exposing True.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan.

The case underscores how Ongoing.

Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.

Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating former student has been charged over an extended series of security breaches and Phishing (T1566) with high confidence (95%), supported by evidence indicating sent more than 100,000 fraudulent emails to students. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating repeated unauthorized access linked to a former student. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating data exfiltration, system compromises, and misuse of infrastructure and Exfiltration Over Web Service (T1567) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating threats to release student information on the dark web. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating system compromises (implied disruption) and Defacement (T1491) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating fraudulent emails to damage the university’s reputation. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating repeated unauthorized access over years (2021-2025) and Subvert Trust Controls (T1553) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating mobile phone modified to function as a computer terminal. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.