Students of UK are warned to avoid science website

CNI Desk: Police have warned students in the UK against using a website that they say lets users "illegally access" millions of scientific research papers.

The City of London police's Intellectual Property Crime Unit says using the Sci-Hub website could "pose a threat" to students' personal data.

The police are concerned that users of the "Russia-based website" could have information taken and misused online.

 

The Sci-Hub website says it "removes all barriers" to science.

It offers open access to more than 85 million scientific papers and claims that copyright laws should be abolished and that such material should be "knowledge to all".

It describes itself as "the first pirate website in the world to provide mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers".

University 'threat'

But Max Bruce, the City of London police's cyber protection officer, has urged universities to block the website on their networks because of the "threat posed by Sci-Hub to both the university and its students".

"If you're tricked into revealing your log-in 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," he said.