Data hack at Melbourne higher education institutions
Some students have been told they may need to change their passport details after thousands of staff and students fell victim to a mass hacking at two Melbourne higher education institutions.
Tertiary
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tertiary. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Thousands of staff and students have had their details stolen in a mass hacking at two Melbourne higher education institutions.
Melbourne Polytechnic confirmed more than 55,000 files have been taken by a hacker during a cyber breach in late-2018.
Data stolen included financial, health information as well as email addresses and passwords.
Victoria Police confirmed a second higher education institution was also targeted in the alleged data breach from August to December in 2018.
A man was arrested on October 11 and charged over the alleged offences, with the matter currently before court.
The 34-year-old, from Heidelberg Heights, was accused of gaining unauthorised access to data, and was in possession of other unauthorised data.
He was charged with 12 offences, including unauthorised access with the intention to commit a serious offence, unauthorised access to restricted data, supplying identification information to commit an indictable offence and possession of identification with the intention to commit an indictable offence.
Melbourne Polytechnic was informed of the cyber breach in October last year following the Victoria Police investigation, but its community has just been informed through mailed letters.
The identity of the second institution is not known.
More than 90,000 Melbourne Polytechnic staff and students have been alerted, believed to be personally impacted by the alleged crime.
A Melbourne Polytechnic student told the Herald Sun she had been recommended to change her passport and personal details.
“They have a responsibility to help us,” she said.
“I think a lot of students are going to be struggling with this.”
Melbourne Polytechnic chief executive Frances Coppolillo offered her “sincere apologies to all the people affected by this data breach”.
“In sharing your information you expected us to keep it safe and I am sorry that we
were not able to do so.
“In response to this incident, we have completed an independent review of our cyber security
procedures and are implementing a range of improvements including software and hardware
upgrades to better protect our IT systems.”
LA TROBE UNI TAKES FINANCIAL HIT
Ms Coppolillo apologised for the delay in informing staff and students, with the TAFE learning of the breach at least four months before informing its community.
“This data breach was highly complex in nature and it has taken many months to fully understand its scale and impact, including identifying the names and contact details of the people affected and the details of how they were impacted by the breach,” she said.
“With the forensic analysis now complete, we have acted as quickly as possible to notify affected individuals and to support them to take the actions needed to protect themselves.”
Students seeking further information can go to: www.melbournepolytechnic.edu.au/cybersupport.