.EDU VULNERABILITY: Students are often told by career advisors to use their .edu email account when applying for jobs, but special online offers and student discounts (think Amazon Prime) lead many to use their school-affiliated address on all sorts of websites. A recent study shows that has caused college emails to be particularly vulnerable to hackers and scammers, who glean the email addresses and sell them on the dark web.
The report found nearly 14,000,000 email addresses and passwords belonging to faculty, staff, students, and alumni at U.S institutions were available to purchase online. What’s worse: “the numbers are staggering and rising quickly,” the study reads.
Colleges and universities hit hardest by cyber thieves include the University of Michigan, which had 122,556 credentials identified on the dark web, followed by Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Illinois.
