Ramat Gan Academic College Listed by handala Ransomware Group: Ransomware Claim — What’s Alleged & What To Do

On May 25, 2024, Ramat Gan Academic College was listed by the handala ransomware group as a victim of a cyber intrusion. Public reporting indicates that the group claims to have hacked the institution and exfiltrated internal files. The number of people affected remains unknown, and further technical details about the incident have not been disclosed.

For students, staff, alumni, and partners of the college, the listing raises practical questions about what information may have left the institution’s systems and what steps can reduce personal risk. This account sticks to the limited What's Publicly Reported while placing them in the broader context of the actor and the sector.

What happened

According to the available record, handala listed Ramat Gan Academic College on its leak site and asserted that it had compromised the college’s systems, resulting in the exfiltration of internal files as part of a ransomware attack. The report is dated May 25, 2024. No public confirmation of the intrusion by the college itself appears in the provided facts, nor is there information on the initial access method, the duration of any unauthorized presence, the volume of data taken, or whether encryption was deployed alongside the claimed theft. The number of individuals whose information may be involved is listed as unknown. The group’s own description of the target characterises the college as a leading academic institution recognised by the Council for Higher Education and notes its undergraduate and graduate programmes in fields such as nursing and health management, computer science and information systems, among others. Beyond the claim of internal-file exfiltration, no further inventory of the material has been published in the source material.

Who is handala?

Handala is a publicly documented, politically motivated threat actor that has repeatedly claimed responsibility for cyber operations against Israeli organisations. The group typically publicises its activity on dedicated leak sites or messaging channels, often framing targets in ideological terms and asserting data theft or system disruption. Its operations have historically mixed elements of hacktivism with ransomware-style tactics: claiming access, threatening or performing data publication, and seeking to amplify political messaging. Prior activity attributed to the group has focused on government, commercial, and educational entities within Israel. In the present case, the listing of Ramat Gan Academic College constitutes a claim by the group; independent verification of the intrusion or the precise contents of any stolen material is not supplied by the facts. Analysts therefore treat the leak-site entry as an unverified assertion pending further corroboration.

About Ramat Gan Academic College

Ramat Gan Academic College is an Israeli higher-education institution offering undergraduate and graduate programmes oriented toward employment-relevant fields, including nursing and health management, computer science, and information systems. Like other colleges and universities, it maintains systems that support admissions, student records, academic administration, research, finance, and human resources. Such organisations routinely process personal data belonging to applicants, enrolled students, faculty, staff, alumni, and external partners. A breach affecting an academic college is consequential because the data held often spans long periods, can include sensitive categories such as health-related programme information or identity documents, and may be reused for identity fraud or further social-engineering attacks long after the initial incident. The college operates within a sector that has seen repeated targeting by both financially motivated and ideologically driven actors.

What was likely exposed

The facts state only that internal files were exfiltrated in a ransomware attack. No specific data categories, file counts, or sample listings are provided, and the number of affected individuals is unknown. Organisations of this type typically store student enrolment and academic records, staff personnel files, contact details, financial and billing information, research materials, and internal administrative documents. Whether any of those categories were among the files claimed by handala remains unconfirmed. Readers should therefore treat any assertion of particular data types as speculative until official notification or further forensic disclosure occurs.

Why it matters

If internal files containing personal information were taken, affected individuals face concrete risks of phishing, identity theft, credential stuffing, and unwanted contact. Academic records can reveal study programmes, contact details, and sometimes financial or health-related data that attackers can weaponise. For the college, the incident may disrupt operations, require costly remediation, and erode trust among students and partners. Because the scale and exact contents remain undisclosed, the full extent of harm cannot yet be quantified; the prudent stance is to assume that any personal data held by the institution could have been exposed until evidence shows otherwise. Politically motivated actors may also publish or selectively leak material to maximise reputational damage, extending the impact beyond pure financial crime.

If your data was in this claimed breach

Monitor financial and academic accounts for unusual activity, enable multi-factor authentication wherever available, and treat unsolicited messages that reference the college or personal details with caution. Change passwords for any accounts that reused credentials associated with the institution. If you receive official notification from the college, follow its guidance on credit monitoring or identity-protection services. As a practical first check, you can run a free exposure scan of your email address against known breach datasets to see whether your information has already appeared in public or underground collections. Remain alert for follow-up communications from the college as more details become available.

AICompiled with AI assistance from public sources and published under our editorial standards.