University of Sydney Data Breach Affects 27,000 Individuals

The University of Sydney says hackers stole personal information pertaining to roughly 27,500 people from one of its online code libraries, a dataset containing historical files likely used for testing purposes. The affected data include details for staff employed in September 2018, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and basic job information.

About 10,000 current and 12,500 former staff and affiliates connected to the university in September 2018 are impacted, with historical data from 2010–2019 also including around 5,000 alumni and students and six supporters. The university notes that, while the data have been accessed and downloaded, there is currently no evidence that the information has been used or published.

Authorities have been notified, and the university is working with cybersecurity partners to investigate the incident, with notifications to affected individuals beginning on Thursday and expected to be completed in January 2026. An investigation is ongoing and, at this stage, access was limited to a single platform and did not affect other university systems.