Brinztech Alert: The Alleged Database of the Higher Institute of Management Sciences is on Sale

Dark Web News Analysis

The dark web news reports a catastrophic data breach involving the Higher Institute of Management Sciences (HIMS). A threat actor on a hacker forum is selling the university’s entire database for a surprisingly low price of $250 USD (payable in Monero/XMR).

The leak is allegedly massive, containing over 28,000 records. The compromised data fields indicate a total security failure: they include Student & Staff PII, Academic Records, Financial Balances, Fawry Transaction Logs, and critically, Plaintext Passwords and live Payment Gateway API Credentials for Mastercard/Banque Misr. The seller has also exposed hidden paths to the Administrative Panel.

Key Cybersecurity Insights

This breach represents a “worst-case scenario” for an educational institution, combining financial liability with a complete loss of academic integrity:

• The “Plaintext” Failure: The storage of Plaintext Passwords is a cardinal sin in cybersecurity. It means the institution failed to use basic hashing or salting. Attackers can immediately log in as any student, professor, or administrator without needing to crack anything.
• Financial Infrastructure Hijack: The exposure of Payment Gateway API Credentials (Mastercard/Banque Misr) is critical. Attackers could potentially use these keys to issue fraudulent refunds to themselves, process fake payments, or disrupt the university’s ability to collect tuition.
• Academic Fraud: With access to Admin Panel Paths and staff credentials, malicious actors can alter grades, issue fake degrees, or delete academic probations. This destroys the trust value of every degree issued by the institute.
• Fawry Log Exploitation: Access to Fawry transaction logs allows scammers to target students with precise phishing: “Your tuition payment of [Amount] via Fawry failed. Pay here immediately to avoid expulsion.”

Mitigation Strategies

To prevent financial ruin and restore academic trust, the following strategies are recommended:

• API Key Revocation: The IT team must immediately revoke the compromised Mastercard/Banque Misr API keys and generate new ones. This is the single most urgent step to stop financial theft.
• Global Password Reset: Force a mandatory password reset for all 28,000 users. Since the old passwords were in plaintext, assume every single account is compromised.
• Admin Path Migration: Change the URL of the administrative panel and restrict access to it via IP whitelisting (internal campus network only) or VPN.
• Forensic Audit: Investigate the server logs to see if the API keys were already used to conduct fraudulent transactions or if grades were altered in the student information system.

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