On January 14, the Victorian government announced catastrophic news for students across the state – a major cyber incident had led to student data from every school being compromised.
An unknown threat actor had accessed the details of thousands of current and former students, accessing names & emails, passwords, and other data.
“Now we’re working with cyber experts, other government agencies and communicating with our schools to ensure this does not disrupt students when they start the 2026 school year,” a Department spokesperson said in a statement.
“There is no evidence to suggest that the data accessed has been released publicly or shared with other third parties.”
But just because it hasn’t been shared yet, doesn’t mean it won’t eventually happen.
Consequences
"When student data is exposed, the consequences extend well beyond the immediate incident,” Takanori Nishiyama, SVP APAC & Japan Country Manager, Keeper Security, told Cyber Daily.
“Information tied to children and former students often persists for decades, creating long-term risk for families and institutions alike, particularly as personal information can be reused, correlated or exploited years later – even when the initial dataset involved appears limited.”
The education environment is a challenging one to secure, complicated by a combination of large datasets, interconnected digital ecosystems, and legacy systems and hardware. However, these issues only reinforce the importance of cyber security fundamentals.
“Effective identity and access management, least-privilege enforcement and strict role-based access controls help ensure that access to sensitive systems and data is intentional, limited and continuously monitored,” Nishiyama said.
“Without these controls, credential exposure or poorly governed access can allow a single compromised account to escalate quickly into a broader incident.”
According to Nishiyama, regular auditing of access privileges, strong credential hygiene, and implementing Zero Trust principles should be foundational practices in the sector.
“This is especially important in education environments, where access rights often accumulate over time and are not consistently reviewed,” Nishiyama said.
“In practice, these controls determine whether an incident remains limited or becomes systemic.”
Student impact
While schools and educational institutions need to sit up and take note, students should also prepare for any follow-on incidents. According to Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, students cannot afford a false sense of security.
“Even without full ID records, the compromised data is highly valuable for phishing and credential stuffing attacks,” Briedis said.
“Be vigilant for highly convincing messages regarding exam results, tuition fees, or portal updates, as these are likely designed to steal further personal details or new passwords. Although the data may not be publicly available right now, criminals are likely already exploiting it in private.”
Students should change their passwords, turn on multi-factor authentication wherever possible, and watch out for any messages asking them to click on a link to access their ATAR scores. Families, too, need to be aware of the threat this incident may represent.
“Families concerned about fraud should set up banking alerts and consider placing a temporary credit freeze with the major credit reporting agencies,” Briedis said.
“Keep an eye on school communications and follow any instructions about password resets or ID updates. If you’re unsure, contact national identity support services and report suspicious approaches to your school.”
Briedis’ final word, however, is for the wider sector.
“For the educational sector, open and collaborative environments need zero-trust foundations. Enforce MFA for students and staff. Segment networks and harden exposed systems,” Briedis said.
“Maintain active detection and logging. Fast, transparent communication is critical. Taking systems offline and notifying schools quickly helps families move before criminals do.”
David Hollingworth
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.