University of Sydney caught up in third-party data breach

The University of Sydney has some exposure to a third-party data breach, affecting the personal data of a “small proportion” of international students and applicants.

Image credit: The University of Sydney/Facebook.

A notification, published on Thursday afternoon, does not name the third-party but says that it held personal data of some “recently applied and enrolled international applicants”.

Though that data was “accessed”, the university said that “there is currently no evidence that any personal information has been misused.”

“We are working to contact impacted students and applicants and will continue to monitor our systems,” the university said.

It said that no other systems were affected but that a “detailed investigation may take some time” to complete.

“Provisional findings indicate that no domestic students, staff, alumni or donors’ data has been affected,” the university stated.

It has notified “relevant cyber security authorities” as well as the NSW Privacy Commissioner of the incident.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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