Opposition rages at hack on Tasmanian schools

About 16,000 documents relating to schoolchildren and their parents have been released onto the dark web as a part of a cyber attack on a state government department.

Thousands of sensitive documents related to schoolchildren and their parents have been accessed and published on the dark web as part of a major hack on a Tasmanian Government department.

The state government is now investigating the theft of data from the Department for Education, Children and Young People, which occurred through a third-party transfer service, GoAnywhere MFT.

There have been approximately 16,000 documents released by the hackers overnight, according to Tasmania’s Science and Technology Minister, Madeleine Ogilvie.

Investigations indicate a risk financial data from the department, including names, addresses, invoices and bank account numbers had been accessed by hackers.

It’s not known whether the hackers demanded a ransom for the information.

“Personal information, really – statements and invoices, the sort of information that will be on those ... it’s a financial data set, but you could anticipate what you might find on those sorts of statements,” Ms Ogilvie told reporters.

The financial invoices and statements accessed related to applications for student assistance.

Unfortunately, #cl0p has now posted data from the #Tasmanian government, and the samples posted appear to show information from the education department#Australia#auspol#Auspol2023#cybersecurity#infosec#Ransomwarepic.twitter.com/HnW29qDyTJ

— CyberKnow (@Cyberknow20) April 6, 2023

Russian hacker group cl0p is behind the cyber attack and initially released a “sample” of the data before unleashing the thousands of pages of documents.

There are fears even more data could be released by the group.

“I really do want to reiterate that there are 16,000 documents that have been released; it may well be that we will see more,” Ms Ogilvie said.

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto was also caught up in the attack and was contacted with demands for money, according to Opposition IT, science and technology spokesperson Jen Butler, who described the hackers as a “very sophisticated criminal group”.

Ms Ogilvie said so far the government had not seen a ransom demand from the hackers.

“That is the advice I have today, and I should also say that it is the advice of the federal government that we do not pay,” she said.

Science and Technology Minister Madeleine Ogilvie said additional resources have been deployed over Easter in case more data is released. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Richard Jupe

According to Ms Butler, it was “hard to know” just how many people had been caught up in the data breach.

“We know that every primary school across Tasmania has been listed as compromised and that information from some primary schools has been put on the dark web,” she said.

The Minister for Science and Technology Madeleine Ogilvie has said the government is bolstering security over the Easter break.

“Additional resources will be deployed over Easter in case the improper release of data is detected,” she said.

Ms Ogilvie is due to give a press conference on Friday afternoon with an update about the situation.

More to come.