In an unprecedented cyberattack at Victoria’s Deakin University, the contact details of almost 47,000 current and past students have been hacked.
According to reports, the hacker(s) were able to access a staff member’s username, password, and other information held by a third-party provider. This breach further led to sending a text message to 9997 students. This message claimed that the students had a parcel available and requested payment for a customs fee.
The hacker(s) then went on to download the contact details of 46,980 current and former Deakin University students. The hacker(s) were able to access student names, student IDs, personal mobile numbers, email addresses, and also recent unit results.
Deakin university said in a statement that they took immediate action:
“Immediate action was taken by Deakin to stop any further SMS messages being sent to students and an investigation into the data breach was immediately commenced.”
Deakin University has further added that it is continuing to investigate the cyberattack incident and has also engaged the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner along with a third-party provider to improve its cybersecurity. It added:
“Deakin sincerely apologises to those impacted by this incident and wants to assure the Deakin community that it is conducting a thorough investigation to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.”
Deakin University is ranked among the top 1 per cent of universities in the world (QS Ranking) and has a large number of students, around 35%, from India enrolled in its various courses.
Earlier in 2021, RMIT University was forced to suspend new enrolments and some classes, and also deferred a plan for staff to return to campus after a cyberattack.
Australian Communication and Media Authority has recently introduced new rules protecting Australians from scam texts. According to the updated rules, telecommunication companies are required to identify, trace and block text scams, and publish information to help their customers manage and report scams.