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Deakin University has been hacked, with contact details of almost 47,000 current and past students compromised due to the cyber attack.
According to The Age, a hacker accessed a staff member's username and password, along with information held by a third-party provider, which led to the Deakin University breach.
In a statement, the Victorian university revealed that it became aware of the incident on Sunday, and the third-party provider had been used in the past to send text messages to students.
A text message had been sent to 9,997 students, following the breach, detailing a "request for a customs fee payment in relation [to] a parcel awaiting collection.'
In a statement, Deakin confirmed it has stopped further distribution of SMS messages.
"Immediate action was taken by Deakin to stop any further SMS messages being sent to students and an investigation into the data breach was immediately commenced," Deakin stated.
Over 46,980 current and former Deakin student contact details were downloaded by the hacker, including names, student IDs, mobile numbers, email addresses and comments that included recent unit results.
According to Deakin's statement, it is continuing to investigate the incident, has engaged with the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner and is working with the third-party provider to improve cyber security.
The information officer's office has received 159 data breach notifications in 2020-21, which is a 66 per cent increase according to its annual report.
Similarly, in 2021, a cyber attack at RMIT forced the university to suspend new enrolments and some classes and deferred a planned return to campus for academic staff.
[Related: Google warns of new Chrome hack attacks aimed at Windows and Android]
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