Victorian department of education reports data breach
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Hackers broke into the Victorian Department of Education's network and accessed the records of every current and former student in the state's government schools. It seems that the attackers entered through a single school's network and managed to reach a database containing information for the entire public school system in Victoria, Australia.
The department disabled several systems to stop more data from leaking. Exposed data includes:
- Full names of current and former students
- Student email addresses
- School names
- Student year levels
- Encrypted account passwords
The nature of the attack and the number of affected individuals is not disclosed.
Officials are now working with cybersecurity experts to clean up the systems before the 2026 school year starts. The department claims that other sensitive data, like as home addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth, are not exposed.
Schools have started sending emails to parents to explain the situation and offer safety advice. The investigation into the full impact of the breach is ongoing.
