The University of Sydney has disclosed a data breach potentially affecting international students.
The data breach, disclosed in a notice on the uni’s website, details that a third-party provider is to blame for the incident.
“The University of Sydney is aware of a data breach involving one third-party provider which has resulted at this stage in a limited number of recently applied and enrolled international applicants’ personal data being accessed,” it wrote, noting that the uni took immediate steps to secure its systems and contain the incident.
“At this stage, our provisional findings indicate that no domestic students, staff, alumni, or donors’ data has been affected.”
It isn’t known at this stage what system exactly this third-party provider is responsible for.
Per the notice, the University of Sydney said the data breach was isolated to a single platform and had no impact on its other systems. It also said there was 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,” it added.
While it’s not yet known how deep the data breach goes, or exactly what information has been compromised, the University of Sydney said it is “working hard to determine the scope of the breach” and is in the process of contacting affected students.
The university said it has notified relevant cyber security authorities as well as the NSW Privacy Commissioner and that it is also offering student wellbeing support via that link or on +61 2 8627 8433.
“The University takes its responsibility to protect the data of our community very seriously,” the notice continues. “We understand this incident may cause concern, and we are working hard to reduce any impact on the affected students and applicants.”
We will update this article if we learn more.