Deakin University alumni contacted about Pareto Phone ‘serious cyber incident’

Deakin University has advised its alumni of a serious cyber incident a third party was caught up in, and how it could impact them.

Deakin University has told alumni about a “serious cyber incident” a third party has been caught up in. Picture: Supplied.

A telemarketing service used by Deakin University has been caught up in a data breach that saw thousands of high profile charities hacked.

Pareto Phone, which collects donations from charity supporters including the Cancer Council and the Fred Hollows Foundation, was involved in a cyber incident which leaked donor data to the dark web, NewsCorp reported.

Deakin had engaged the service to provide support with its alumni calling program.

On Monday, Deakin contacted former students and confirmed it had engaged Pareto Phone in late 2022 to provide support with its alumni calling program.

Deakin’s chief advancement officer Jimmy Buck said in an email that alumni contact details had been shared with Pareto Phone.

Mr Buck said the information was shared “only after extenstive legal and privacy compliance checks”.

“We were recently advised that Pareto Phone has been caught up in a serious cyber incident,” Mr Buck said.

“We have been assured by Pareto Phone that no personal information provided to them by Deakin University has been affected.

“I would also like to reassure you that no financial information was ever shared with Pareto Phone, and all donations were processed through Deakin University’s secure system.”

Mr Buck said the university would continue to monitor the situation and update alumni if anything changed.

The university would not say how many alumni had been affected by the breach.

It’s not the first time the university has had a brush with cyber security issues.

In July, 2022, the details of about 47,000 past and present Deakin students – including their names, phone numbers, and academic results – were caught up in a cyber attack.

At the time, a university spokesperson said in a blog post that a staff member’s username and password were hacked by an unauthorised person to access information held by a third-party provider.

Deakin confirmed an SMS was sent to 9997 of its students, appearing as if it was from the university.

The SMS said a parcel was available, and asked recipients to pay customs fees “urgently” via a link which if clicked on, asked students for credit card details.

After the attack, experts said they feared universities would continue to be targeted by hackers, highlighting the need for heightened security measures.

Mr Buck said if anyone had been contacted by someone claiming to have their data, or if they were the victim of a scam, they should report it to the Australian government.

To report, go to cyber.gov.au/report-and-recover/report

Originally published as Deakin University alumni contacted about Pareto Phone ‘serious cyber incident’