Top Hong Kong universities caught up in major hack attack on more than 100 global institutions

A number of major educational institutions in Hong Kong were allegedly affected by a major hack attack encompassing more than 100 universities and government agencies worldwide.

According to a document published by hacking group GhostShell, thousands of user accounts were compromised in the wide ranging attack. Speaking to the South China Morning Post via Twitter, where they initially publicised the attack, the hacking group said organisations were targeted as "they were part of the top one million most active websites on the net".

Leung Siu-cheong, a senior consultant with the Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre, said that around half the websites affected by the hack were in education or academia. HKCERT found that "some usernames and ID numbers, emails or phone numbers were exposed".

"They exposed some user information, maybe from students," Leung said. "There is no financial implication at the moment."

He said the main reason for the hackers' public document dump was "to show their capability. Maybe they want to follow up with some other things, maybe to make their profile higher or to inform their capability." The data posted by GhostShell was accompanied by a manifesto of sorts, titled "Dark Hacktivism".