{"id":109506,"date":"2020-02-17T16:40:49","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T15:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=109506"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:30:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:30:43","slug":"maastricht-university-pays-ransom-money-from-its-own-private-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/02\/17\/maastricht-university-pays-ransom-money-from-its-own-private-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Maastricht University pays ransom money from its own private funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ransom money that Maastricht University paid last December to the cyber hackers who had held its computer systems hostage came from the institution\u2019s private funds. The same goes for all other costs incurred, writes minister Van Engelshoven.<\/p>\n

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Maastricht university\n<\/span><\/p>

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Earlier this month, the board of Maastricht University admitted that it had paid<\/a> \u20ac197,000 to hackers who carried out a major cyberattack just before Christmas last year. Failure to make the payment could have left the university unable to resume its education and research activities for months.<\/p>\n

According to the minister, the ransom money and \u201call other costs connected with the ransomware attack\u201d were paid<\/a> from \u201cthe sale of a participation of the holding of Maastricht University\u201d. She emphasizes that universities and universities of applied sciences are responsible for their own information security.<\/p>\n

The question is what those other costs exactly entail. Do they for instance include costs for the assistance provided by security company Fox-IT, which investigated what had gone wrong after the cyberattack?<\/p>\n

A Maastricht University spokesperson confirmed that this was correct. \u201cThe costs covered the engagement of third parties, like Fox-IT, as well as temporary security measures involving additional IT staff. Nevertheless, all future costs incurred to improve the university\u2019s digital security will be drawn from the regular budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also asserts that it has never been a secret that the ransom money was not paid from education and research funding. But this fact has thus far not been disclosed in the media reports about the cyberattack.<\/p>\n

More on cybercrime<\/h2>