Individuals who have been personally affected by this data breach have received a message from Odido (or Ben or Simpel) with a reference to the guidelines they provide: www.odido.nl/veiligheid-eng
It is also possible that, as an employee, you have (or have had) a private Odido contract and belong to the target group that needs to be extra alert to ‘strange messages and phone calls’. As far as we know, no passwords have been leaked, so if you also use your private phone for work, no university data has been stolen.
Always be vigilant
Nevertheless, we ask everyone to always be vigilant about suspicious messages, phone calls, or phishing emails. For example, there are currently phishing emails in circulation that are sent on behalf of a fake professor. Through the phishing email, they try to contact you and ultimately persuade you to buy gift cards for them.
So always be extra alert when you receive a message from someone you don't know. Never respond to potential phishing messages, no matter how innocent they may seem. Responding to attackers in order to ‘provoke’ them is also undesirable. This could cause the attackers to mark you as a potential target, resulting in you being approached more often. By reporting potential phishing messages, you help improve Radboud University's spam filters, which ultimately benefits your colleagues as well.
Data breach and phishing risk
Leaked information allows phishing attacks to be highly targeted. Using your email address, phone number, and address, hackers can send targeted phishing emails or text messages that appear to come from a familiar organization. The NOS website provides a clear explanation of what can be done with which data (Dutch only).
What you can do?
The university continuously takes measures to keep your data secure. In addition, it is important that you also take preventive measures yourself:
- Use unique passwords for each application, and only use your Radboud password for your Radboud account.
- Set up MFA (see your phone's manual).
- Use a VPN connection when using public Wi-Fi.
- Complete the e-learning course For your eyes only and learn how to recognize phishing, among other things.
- Obtain your software from trusted sources, such as the software center or the Windows Store. That way, you can always be sure that your software does not contain viruses.
