Deakin University has confirmed a hacker has mass spammed nearly 10,000 students and downloaded the contact details of almost 47,000 past and present students.
The cyber attack took place on July 10 when someone managed to hack a University staff member’s credentials and used them to access student information held by an unnamed third-party provider.
The hacker then sent 9,997 students a scam text message which asked the recipients to “urgently” pay customs fees for their ordered parcel. The SMS message also includes a link that takes the recipient to a form requesting their information, including credit card details.
In addition, the hacker gained access to the contact details of 46,980 current and past students, including student names, student IDs, mobile numbers, Deakin email addresses and recent results.
Deakin University spokesperson said in a blog post that the university has taken “immediate action” to stop further SMS messages from being sent and commenced an investigation into the data breach.
“An investigation into the data breach was immediately commenced,” the university said in a statement in which it has vowed to work to prevent future cyber attacks.
“Deakin sincerely apologies 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.”
Students who received the scam text are advised to change their Deakin…
