May 26, 2025 20:21 - Leaked Credentials - Operation Endgame 2.0 View
What is Operation Endgame 2.0 ? The Queen’s IT Services Security team recently became aware of the following. In May 2025, a coalition of law enforcement agencies took down the criminal infrastructure behind the malware used to launch ransomware attacks in a new phase of "Operation Endgame". This followed the first Operation Endgame exercise a year earlier, with the latest action resulting in 15.3M victim email addresses being provided to HIBP by law enforcement. A further 43.8M victim passwords were also provided for HIBP's Pwned Passwords service. A number of these accounts included credentials belonging to accounts that have @queensu.ca usernames. As a precaution, Queen’s IT Services will expire the passwords of any Queen’s account found to be listed on the breached accounts list to ensure that the password posted will no longer be valid.
What should I do to protect myself? If you received an email message from IT Services concerning the expiry of your password, please take a moment to change your password before it expires. NetID passwords are changed at https://netid.queensu.ca/selfservice/login/auth
We also encourage you to take the following actions to better protect yourself and your information: Do not reuse passwords across your accounts. If you have used your Queen’s password on multiple sites, we strongly encourage you to change that password on every other site where it has been used. Be extra diligent of scams that may reference your Queen's account.
What data was compromised? A massive collection of usernames and passwords have been integrated into the Have I Been Pwned (a website that alerts users about data breaches) database. To help understand the source of this information, you will find information below on how to review what services may be tied to your email address via the service called 'Have I been Pwned?"
Why is Queen’s expiring passwords for potentially breached accounts? Queen’s account holders who fail to follow safe password practices are at risk when breaches like this occur. To protect your Queen’s account IT Services are taking this action to prevent account compromises by ensuring all accounts associated with the posting of credentials have refreshed passwords.
What caused the data breach? It is not known to us as to the exact cause of this data breach. IT Services received this breach information from the service called “Have I Been Pwned?”. Visiting the website https://haveibeenpwned.com/ will allow you to enter and check your Queen’s University email address against all publicized breaches that reference your Queen’s email address. The site also provides details about the data breach, including links to additional information.