Australian Education Data Breach, 31 January 2023

Hundreds of parents hit by credit card hack at Melbourne’s Mount Lilydale Mercy catholic school

400 parents are being warned their credit card information may have been stolen over the school holidays.

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Source: Hundreds of parents hit by credit card hack at Lilydale school | The Age

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Hackers have gained access to the credit card details of about 400 parents whose children attend a Catholic school in Melbourne’s outer east.

Mount Lilydale Mercy College principal Philip Morison said the secondary school, which has about 1500 students, first became aware of the incident on January 11.

In a letter sent out on January 30, parents of Mount Lilydale Mercy College were made aware of the breach ,which impacted 400 people.

Details potentially accessed by the hackers included credit card numbers, but not CCV details, and the school said it was working to mitigate any future risks.

According to principal Philip A Morison, the college was made aware of the cyber attack by “third-party hackers” on January 11 by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

An AFP spokesperson said it notified the college after receiving “information which indicated potential suspicious activity had originated from their network”.