Did a threat actor lie about orchestrating a data breach containing sensitive data about 8,000 students and faculty of a university in India? VIT Bhopal, the university in question, says so and has shared proof with The Cyber Express debunking the hacker’s claims. The university also felt that the hacker’s failed attempt to carry out a cyberattack was only to "garner attention and notoriety."

What Was VIT Bhopal Data Breach Claim?

VIT Bhopal was established in 2017 and is a deemed university located on the outskirts of Bhopal, the capital city of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The institution is authorized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), which is a statutory organization of the Government of India for the maintenance of standards of teaching, examination, and research in university education. VIT Bhopal ranks among the top universities in India. As per the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Ranking, it stands in 65th position amongst all the universities in India. On June 10, 2024, a threat actor, operating under the name “lucifer001,” claimed on the notorious data breach site BreachForums that they had carried out a cyberattack on the university’s website. [caption id="attachment_76218" align="aligncenter" width="792"] Source: X[/caption] According to the post, the threat actor shared screenshots and claimed to possess the following information:

• ID: Unique Identification number assigned to each student and faculty member of the university.
• Username: Login credentials of all the stakeholders used to access university portals, maintain and share records, post newsletters, and research materials confined to the institution.
• Full name: First and last name of the students and faculty of VIT Bhopal.
• Email: Email addresses of stakeholders, which is the official mode of communication for announcements, course materials and student-faculty interactions.
• Password: To access personal accounts and university resources.
• User Activation Key: A unique code allegedly required for initial account activation or password resets.

VIT Bhopal Refutes Data Breach Claim

The university responded to the data breach claims and said that the information shared by the cyberattacker was to "gain attention and notoriety through dubious and illegal methods.” Sharing a point-by-point explanation debunking the claims, Dr G Vishnuvarthanan, Assistant Director, Centre for Technical Support, VIT Bhopal University, said, “I would like to provide some invaluable findings and suggestions from our end, which need to be treated as a rebuttal." After an internal investigation, the university found that the hacker only “leaked insignificant” info from a dummy Application Programming Interface (API), which was not protected. “It is crucial to clarify that the alleged breach involved a dummy API endpoint, intentionally open for various third-party integrations with the university's website. This endpoint contains only dummy data, designed explicitly for testing and integration purposes, and does not include any real or sensitive information,” Vishnuvarthanan explained. He then went on to clarify that in its investigation of the data breach claim, the university found that the hacker accessed only eight rows of dummy data, which contained nothing of significance. “VIT Bhopal University takes data security very seriously. Upon learning of the alleged breach, the university immediately conducted a thorough review and investigation. Despite our confidence in our security measures, we verified that only 8 rows of dummy data from the dummy API were accessed. This data has no significance and was part of the publicly available integration tools,” he added. The University stated that it follows industry-standard data security practices and tools to ensure the safety of student and faculty data. He ascertained the university's commitment to data security based on four core practices:

1. Regular Security Audits: Conducting periodic security audits to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.
2. Advanced Encryption: Utilizing advanced encryption techniques to protect data at rest and in transit.
3. Access Controls: Implementing strict access controls to ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive information.
4. Incident Response Plan: Maintaining a comprehensive incident response plan to swiftly address any security incidents.

Cyber Attack Threat: A Challenge to Digital Assets

While the VIT Bhopal data breach claim turned out to be a hoax, cyber threats around the globe is a matter of concern, and are continuing to evolve in sophistication and scale. It is not just organizations but consumers too who face an ever-growing challenge to safeguard their digital assets. To brace this challenge, Cyble, a leading force in AI-based cybersecurity, recently unveiled AmIBreached 3.0, its dark web engine.

What is AmIBreached?

AmIBreached 3.0, developed by Cyble offers advanced tools to identify, prioritize, and mitigate dark web risks. This comprehensive platform accesses over 150 billion records from breaches, hacking forums, and discussions, providing organizations with critical insights into hidden threats. With real-time monitoring and actionable intelligence, AmIBreached 3.0 helps organizations and individuals proactively address and manage emerging cyber threats efficiently.

"In publishing, the term used to refer to the blockbuster books published in summer... Over time, the term 'beach read' began to describe a certain type of book... Many times these books can be classified as 'women's fiction': romance, domestic psychological thrillers, or contemporary novels featuring female characters. The term is dripping with sexist assumptions about what women read and the books women authors write. It's a logical leap in a patriarchal society: books by women, about women, are more likely to be considered 'light reading.'" – from Book Riot's What Makes a Book a Beach Read? Accordingly, here are some small press books by women, about women, including Become Ungovernable, Feminism against Cisness, On Strike Against God, and 25 more.

All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence by Emily L. Thuma (Haymarket Books, Revised Edition 12 Nov 2024): A vital history of organizing within and beyond the walls of women's prisons in the 1970s, illuminating a crucial chapter in today's abolition feminist struggles. (Amazon; Bookshop; order directly from the publisher for 40% off this summer.) An Astonishment of Stars: Stories by Kirti Bhadresa (ECW Press, 1 Oct 2024): A beautifully written short story collection that charts the lives of racialized women as they navigate their relationships, aspirations, and the burdens of memory and expectations. (Amazon; Bookshop) Become Ungovernable: An Abolition Feminist Ethic for Democratic Living by H.L.T. Quan (Pluto Press, 20 Feb 2024): A sweeping, magisterial work of abolitionist feminist political theory. (Amazon; Bookshop) Clever Girl: Jurassic Park by Hannah McGregor (ECW Press, 1 Oct 2024): A smart and incisive exploration of everyone's favorite dinosaur movie and the female dinosaurs who embody what it means to be angry, monstrous, and free. (Amazon; Bookshop) Cloud Missives by Kenzie Allen (Tin House, 20 Aug 2024): Each poem examines a mystery. Each poem has its own Indigeneity. Each poem is its own cloud missive. (Amazon; Bookshop) Feminism against Cisness edited by Emma Heaney (Duke UP, May 2024): The future of feminist historical, theoretical, and political thought freed from the fallacy that assigned sex determines sexed experience. (Amazon; Bookshop) Fighting Mad: Resisting the End of Roe v. Wade ed. by Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger (University of California Press, 19 Mar 2024): A fierce and galvanizing reminder that resistance is everywhere in the fight for abortion and reproductive justice in the United States. (Amazon; Bookshop) From Savagery by Alejandra Banca, trans. Katie Brown (Restless Books, 27 Aug 2024): Electric, defiant, and singing with melancholia, Alejandra Banca's devastating debut throws its arms around a displaced generation of young Venezuelan migrants, reveling in the clamor and beauty of their day-by-day survival. In this English PEN Award-winning translation by Katie Brown, From Savagery announces Alejandra Banca as a resplendent and masterful new voice in Latin American literature. (Amazon; Bookshop) Girlfriends: Stories by Emily Zhou (Littlepuss Press, 17 Oct 2023): A finalist for the 2024 Lambda Literary Awards's Transgender Fiction Prize, featuring "realist short stories mostly about trans women in their early to mid twenties." (Amazon; Bookshop) Grace and Marigold by Mira Robertson (Spinifex Press, 6 Aug 2024): It's 1974 when 20-year-old Grace arrives in London determined to shrug off her Australian past and reinvent herself. While embracing her new life in the Free Republic of Beltonia, a street of communal squats, she's haunted by the unbearable thought that she might be a lesbian – a fate she considers almost worse than death. Before long, she falls (secretly) in love with Marigold, upper class, enigmatic and avowedly straight. When Marigold mysteriously disappears without a trace, the search for her leads Grace to a life-changing epiphany. (Amazon) Greasepaint by Hannah Levene (Nightboat Books, 13 Feb 2024): Set against a backdrop of 1950s New York, this experimental novel follows an ensemble cast of all singing, all dancing butch dykes and Yiddish anarchists through eternal Friday nights, around the table and at the bar. (Amazon) I'll Give You a Reason by Annell López (Feminist Press, 9 Apr 2024): A shimmering debut story collection intimately exploring race, identity, and the pursuit of the American Dream. (Amazon; Bookshop) Jellyfish Have No Ears by Adèle Rosenfeld, trans. Jeffrey Zuckerman (Graywolf, 6 Aug 2024): Since she was little, Louise has been not quite hearing and not quite deaf—her life with this invisible disability has been one of in-betweenness. After an audiology test shows that almost all her hearing is gone, her doctor suggests getting a cochlear implant. The operation will be irreversible, making the decision all the more fraught. The technology would give Louise a new sense of hearing—but it would be at the expense of her natural hearing, which, for all its weakness, has shaped her unique relationship with the world, full of whispers and shadows. (Amazon; Bookshop) Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba (Haymarket Books, May 2023): What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? A practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe. (Amazon; Bookshop; order directly from the publisher for 40% off this summer.) Loving Corrections by adrienne maree brown (AK Press, 20 Aug 2024): New York Times-bestselling author adrienne maree brown knows we need each other more than ever, and offers "loving corrections": a roadmap towards collective power, righting wrongs, and true belonging. (Amazon; Bookshop) Monster by Jowita Bydlowska (Anvil Press, 1 Sept 2024): From the bestselling author of Drunk Mom and Possessed comes a mesmerizing, brave new work of autofiction. Monster is a shattering, feminist manifesto exploring sexual awakening, motherhood, immigrant trauma, and the power of female rage. On Strike Against God by Joanna Russ (Feminist Press, 23 July 2024): A lost feminist masterwork by a speculative fiction icon about a lesbian's coming-to-consciousness during the social upheaval of the 1970s. (Amazon; Bookshop) Planked by the Abyss by Meg Tuite (Whiskey Tit, 22 July 2024): A compelling short story collection "not only like reading something completely different, but like reading for the first time. " (Amazon) The Rage Letters by Valérie Bah, trans. Kama La Mackerel (Metonymy Press, 21 Nov 2023): Short stories which playfully trace the portrait of the intertwined lives of a group of Black queer and trans friends as they navigate the social violence, traumas, and contradictions of their circumstances. A finalist for the 2024 Lambda Literary Awards's Transgender Fiction Prize. (Amazon; Bookshop) The Theme Park of Women's Bodies by Maggie Cooper (Bull City Press, 17 Sept 2024): Fierce, fabulist stories provide a tour of worlds built by, for, or around women. By turns darkly satirical to almost utopian. (Amazon) Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa, trans. Jennifer Feeley (Feminist Press, 11 Jun 2024): Sharp, darkly humorous, and politically pointed, Tongueless presciently engages with current political tensions in Hong Kong. Winner of the 2024 PEN Translates Award. (Amazon; Bookshop) Trash by Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny, trans. JD Pluecker (Deep Vellum, 21 Mar 2023): A finalist for the 2024 Lambda Literary Awards's Transgender Fiction Prize which "interweaves the experiences and voices of three very different women whose life or work moves around the municipal dumpsite of Ciudad Juárez, México." (Amazon; Bookshop) Vladivostock Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin (Open Letter Books, 14 May 2024): Nathalie arrives at the circus in Vladivostok, Russia, fresh out of fashion school in Geneva. She is there to design the costumes for a trio of artists who are due to perform one of the most dangerous acts of all: the Russian Bar. From the winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature. (Amazon; Bookshop) Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel (Feminist Press, 12 Sept 2023): Phoebe, who has moved from Dublin to Copenhagen, is visited by Grace, her ex from before her transition, who shows up unexpectedly at her door. A finalist for the 2024 Lambda Literary Awards's Transgender Fiction Prize. (Amazon; Bookshop) A Witch's Guide to Burning by Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn and Quarterly, 28 May 2024): A blend of prose and comics, this is an adventure story and a whimsical and humorous allegory for burnout in a society in desperate need of self-care. (Amazon; Bookshop) Woman, Life, Freedom by Marjane Satrapi, trans. Una Dimitrijevic (Seven Stories Press, 19 Mar 2024): An urgent, groundbreaking and visually stunning new collection of graphic story-telling about the present Iranian revolution from Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis. (Amazon; Bookshop) A Woman's Life Is a Human Life: My Mother, Our Neighbor, and the Journey from Reproductive Rights to Reproductive Justice by Felicia Kornbluh (Grove Press, 16 Jan 2024): Hailed as "the first real chronicle of the reproductive rights movement of the past sixty years" (Linda Gordon, University Professor of History, NYU), A Woman's Life Is a Human Life delivers the untold story of everyday activists who won resounding victories in demanding bodily and reproductive autonomy—a history that resonates all the more powerfully today. (Amazon; Bookshop) Wrong is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art by Erica N. Cardwell (Feminist Press, 12 Mar 2024): A dazzling hybrid of personal memoir and criticism, considering the work of Black visual artists as a means to explore loss, legacy, and the reclamation of life through art. (Amazon; Bookshop) Previous roundups: 1 (Juneteenth), 2 (Pride), 3 (no theme), 4 (challenging work), and 5 (no theme).

The Big Internet Math-Off 2024, Round 1, Match 1 – Here's the first match in this year's Big Internet Math-Off. Today, we're pitting Katie Steckles against Benjamin Dickman. Take a look at both pitches, vote for the bit of maths that made you do the loudest "Aha!", and if you know any more cool facts about either of the topics presented here, please write a comment below! Overview of the 2024 edition.

Previous editions:

• 2020
• 2019
• 2018

In 1964, the Klan killed three young activists and shocked the nation. A Mississippi town still grapples with that violent civil rights history. An oral history By Susan Levine, Photography by Michael S. Williamson for The Washington Post. Trigger warning for violence and racism. Long. Intense. Note: this is about the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Different models of access control offer unique methods and benefits. The three primary models are Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC), and Discretionary Access Control (DAC).

The post Understanding Access Control Models: RBAC, ABAC, and DAC appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The digital landscape is no longer solely populated by human actors. Lurking beneath the surface is a silent legion – non-human or machine identities . These non-human identities encompass computers, mobile devices, servers, workloads, service accounts, application programming interfaces (APIs), machine learning models, and the ever-expanding internet of things (IoT) devices. They are the backbone […]

The post The Impending Identity Crisis Of Machines: Why We Need To Secure All Non-Human Identities, From Genai To Microservices And IOT appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Edward Dwight was among the first pilots that the United States was training to send to space in 1961, but he was passed over. On Sunday, he finally made it on a Blue Origin flight.

© Blue Origin, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images