Thursday 10/April/2025 – 04:03 PM
West Sydney University revealed a major breakthrough in data, which led to the leakage of personal information up to 10,000 students, with a worrying publication on the Dark Web that includes this data.
Leaking personal information for students on the Dark Web
According to the British Daily Mail newspaper, the university said that the attack took place during the months of January and February this year, and targeted sensitive information that includes demographic data, registration details, and academic progress for students.
In a separate incident, the university learned of the existence of a publication on the Dark Web published on March 24, and it is believed that this publication was uploaded to the network on the first of November of last year, according to the findings of the internal investigations.
The university explained that it will communicate with thousands of current and former students in the coming days, after their information has been reached illegally, stressing that cyber security experts managed to move quickly as soon as the breach was discovered to limit the arrival of the attackers to the regime.
This penetration is the second of its kind in a few weeks, as student data on the Dark Web has already been leaked in a previous incident last month.
To prevent the exploitation of data, the university obtained a temporary judicial order from the Supreme Court of New South Wales, preventing access to, using, circulating, or publishing the leaked data.
Targeting electronic attacks
Dr. George Williams, Vice President of the University, said: West Sydney University was the target of continuous and focused electronic attacks, and we are fully aware of the personal impact of these incidents on our students, our employees and the broader society, we apologize for that, and we are working without stopping to enhance our digital security.
He added: The higher education sector is considered one of the most targeted sectors in electronic attacks, and our university is not an exception to this advanced threat. We urge everyone to vigilant and immediately respond to any security alerts.
The West Sydney University, which ranks eleventh in size in Australia, includes about 46 thousand students, and has been exposed in recent years a series of data breakthroughs.
Reports showed that between mid -2023 and March 2024, Microsoft Office 365 and DELL ISILON storage platforms were targeted, stealing about 580 terabytes of data.
The leaked information included students’ names, means of communication, birth dates, health information, government identity numbers, tax file numbers, and bank account details.
The university confirmed that it has not yet received any threats to extortion related to these data, and that investigations are still ongoing.
