University of Michigan officials have refrained from providing a motive for what a regent described as a “targeted attack” on three of its campuses’ online systems during this week’s internet outage. As of now, no suspect has been identified.
However, there may be valid reasons for withholding such information, particularly considering a scenario akin to the incident involving the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2020.
The uniqueness of the 2020 UCSF case lies in the fact that not only did the university experience an attack, but the confidential ransom negotiations were also exposed to a news organization, intensifying the university’s sense of violation and public embarrassment.