Police warn students and universities of accessing an illegal website to download published scientific papers

Police warn students and universities of accessing an illegal website to download published scientific papers

The City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) is warning universities and students to not use ‘Sci Hub’, a series of websites that allow users to illegally access millions of scientific research papers.

Sci-Hub is a series of websites that enable free access to over 70 million published scientific papers of all disciplines. It is estimated that it includes 80% or more of the world’s currently published scientific papers, with the volume of data being roughly two and a half times the size of Wikipedia.

Sci-Hub obtains the papers through a variety of malicious means, such as the use of phishing emails to trick university staff and students into divulging their login credentials.  Sci Hub then use this to compromise the university’s network and download the research papers.

Sci-Hub allows users to request a journal article, which is then retrieved from a publisher’s platform, using compromised access credentials. Many universities around the world have suffered intrusions as a result of access credentials being stolen when visiting the Sci-Hub website. 

A spokesperson of the City of London Police’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said:

“Students should be aware that accessing such websites is illegal, as it hosts stolen intellectual property. Visitors to the site are very vulnerable to having their credentials stolen, which once obtained, are used by Sci-Hub to access further academic journals for free, and continue to pose a threat to intellectual property rights.

“With more students now studying from home and having more online lectures, it is vital universities prevent students accessing the stolen information on the university network. This will not only prevent the universities from having their own credentials stolen, but also those of their students, and potentially the credentials of other members of the households, if connected to the same internet provider. 

“It is essential that students and universities report incidents of cybercrime to Action Fraud, so that we can build up a clear picture of the latest threats and give the best advice on how to avoid falling victim to cyber criminals such as Sci Hub."

Max Bruce, Cyber Protect Officer from the City of London Police, said:

“We would urge people to not use Sci Hub, as doing so could pose a threat to their personal information and devices.

“If you’re tricked into revealing your login credentials, whether it’s through the use of fake emails or malware, we know that Sci Hub will then use those details to compromise your university’s computer network in order to steal research papers.

“Given the threat posed by Sci Hub to both the university and its students, IT departments are advised to block the website on their network in order to mitigate the security risk.

“We also advise students to always use strong, separate passwords for their personal and university accounts. “

Andrew Pitts, CEO of PSI said:

“We know of 42 UK universities that have been hacked by Sci-Hub after patrons and faculty have had personal credentials stolen through phishing. It is very important that students and staff of universities keep personal credentials safe and use secure passwords. By accessing Sci-Hub, users may inadvertently download potentially dangerous content from this illegal site and put the security of their organisations at risk. We urge all universities that use remote access systems involving usernames and passwords to download our block lists, both to prevent intrusions from known bad actors, and to discourage access to this dangerous site.”

Report to Action Fraud online at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk  or by calling 0300 123 2040. If you live in Scotland, please report directly to Police Scotland by calling 101.