Maastricht University (UM) will be refunded the ransom that was paid to cyber criminals after a hack in 2019. The police and the Public Prosecution Service have now found part of the ransom money and crypto coins. It turns out to be a lucky accident, because the crypto coins have become more valuable, as a result of which the university receives about 500,000 euros, while almost 200,000 euros in ransom was paid at the time, reports the Volkskrant†
At the end of 2019, UM was completely paralyzed by criminal hackers. As a result of the ransomware attack, students, researchers and other employees were unable to email for days, have limited use of the internet and were unable to access files on the university’s servers.
Nick Bos, vice-chairman of the UM Executive Board, said at the time that the university was faced with a diabolical dilemma. On the one hand, he said it didn’t feel morally right to pay cybercriminals as a government-funded educational institution. But the interests of UM students, employees and researchers weighed more heavily. The university therefore decided to pay the amount to the hackers.
The cybercrime team of the Limburg police tracked down part of the ransom paid. That led to an account of a Ukrainian money launderer, who was interrogated by the police and the Public Prosecution Service in Ukraine last year. The hackers who carried out the attack on the university have not yet been found. That investigation is still ongoing.