Australian universities investigate online exam tool data breach

Australian universities investigate online exam tool data breach

Australian universities using the ProctorU online exam monitoring tool are included in a data breach affecting 444,000 users of the platform.


The breach, first reported by Bleeping Computer, is among a number of databases being published to a hacker forum, exposing over 385 million user records since July 21st.


ProctorU was one of 18 companies with data exposed in the release, which contained records belonging to University of Sydney staff, that university’s Honi Soit student publication reported.


The data contains usernames, unencrypted passwords, legal names and full residential addresses, belonging to a number of Australian universities, including the Group of Eight’s University of Sydney, University of NSW, University of Queensland, University of Melbourne, University of Western Australia, and University of Adelaide, as well as Swinburne University, James Cook University, and Curtin University, Honi Soit said.


A spokesperson for the University of Sydney told iTnews the university met with ProctorU’s CEO and compliance officer today, “who confirmed they are investigating a breach of confidential data relating to users of their service”.


“We understand the data relates to people who were registered as users of ProctorU’s services on or before 2014," the spokesperson said.


“We don’t believe our current students are directly impacted by this breach as we began using ProctorU’s online proctoring services in 2020, in response to the COVID19 pandemic.


"Any breach of security and privacy of this type is of course deeply concerning and we will continue to work with ProctorU to understand the circumstances of the breach and determine whether any follow-up actions are required on our part."



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