The website of the US-based Cambridge International University has apparently been hacked while earlier checks revealed a sole Malaysian representative listed as “official partner”.
The university came under scrutiny after Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Marzuki Yahya admitted that he obtained his degree in business administration from the institution which is believed to be a “diploma mill”.
Instead of the webpage of the university, visitors are directed to a page with a picture of a skull and the words HACKED in red next to it.
“Apologies, but no results were found. Perhaps searching will help find a related post,” reads a message at the bottom of the page.
Previous checks on CIU’s website returned faculty members that appear dubious.
For instance, one Professor Dr Sarah Gordon was listed as having a PhD from ‘Kentucky’ as well as ‘Italy’, an MBA from ‘Florida’ and Bachelor of Arts ‘hones’ from Peru. There was no mention of any specific universities that awarded her these degrees.
The same goes for the rest of CIU’s faculty members and adjunct faculty members. There is no mention of the universities they attended, only the country or state they got it from.
Pictures of faculty members seem to have been taken from an online dating site or fashion shoots.
Furthermore, email addresses listed on the website led to server error messages.
Interestingly, there was a sole Malaysian representative listed on the website – but he too, was uncontactable.
One Ravi Prabakaran was listed as one of the university’s “official partners” but just like the university’s faculty members, there was no way to verify his existence.
Ravi was listed as a CEO and director of a company called Profile Consultants Resources in Kuantan.
The same firm is also the “international office” of the University of New Imperia, another unaccredited US-based institution in the state of Delaware.
On its website, it said that until 2013, the University of New Imperia had not yet been accredited by any agencies recognised by the US Secretary of Education.
The rest of the official partners of CIU were made up of people from all over the world, from the United Kingdom to Indonesia, as well as Papua New Guinea and South Korea.
Some of the other names in the New Imperia list also appeared in the CIU list. As was the case with Ravi Prabakaran, no contact numbers were provided and a Google search did not return any relevant results.
For instance, one “partner” Farah Sydney, was said to be with the Felix Academy of Business Studies in Central London, but a Google search produced no information of this institute.
Similarly, “official partners” allegedly attached to institutions such as Sapura Science Centre in Seoul, the Kiwi Education Inc in Papua New Guinea and the Martin Dundee Business Corp in South Africa, either did not exist or operated completely without leaving any digital footprints.
Cambridge International University has no affiliation with the prestigious University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Related reports:
Feb 7, Bersatu Defends Marzuki: He Didn’t Rape or Steal, Not Picked for Academic Credentials
Feb 7, Marzuki’s “Cambridge Degree” Actually from Distance-Learning US Centre