Western Sydney University has suffered a major cyber breach, with hackers stealing a range of sensitive student information from tax file numbers and passport details to private health and disability information.
The cyber attack happened between June 19 and September 3 this year, the university revealed on Thursday.
It is understood the university first spotted suspicious activity on its systems in two incidents from August 6 and August 11.
“This activity occurred on the University’s Student Management System, hosted by a third-party provider on a cloud-based platform,” WSU said in a statement.
“An investigation commenced immediately and the university directed the third-party provider to shut down access to its platform.
“The investigation confirmed that unauthorised access to this system was obtained through a further external system linked to that platform between 19 June 2025 and 3 September 2025.
“Unauthorised entry through these third and fourth party systems enabled personal information to be accessed and exfiltrated from the university’s Student Management System.”
The hackers have stolen a vast range of sensitive data, including names, dates of birth, ethnicity, employment and payroll details, bank account details, tax file numbers, driver’s licence details, passport and visa information, complaint and case information and also health, disability and legal information.
Source: news.com.au