Students and staff locked out after security breach at major university

The University of Western Australia has confirmed it suffered a security breach, leading to students and staff being locked out of university systems and software.

The university said in a statement this morning sensitive password information had been accessed by an unauthorised user, putting thousands at risk of having personal information leaked.

"The University has detected unauthorised access to university password information. As a security measure, all staff and students have been locked out of UWA systems and are required to reset their passwords to gain access," it said in a statement today.

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"We do not believe any other information has been accessed; however, we are continuing to investigate this incident as our highest priority."

UWA's chief information officer Fiona Bishop dismissed one motivation behind the breach.

"[There is] no indication it was ransomware,' she told ABC News Radio Perth.

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"We're working feverishly to ensure everyone can log on, staff and students have [been] provided a three-day extension to student assessments."

It's not the first time a major Australian university has been impacted by a data breach this year.

In April, the personal data of up to 10,000 Western Sydney University students and staff was accessed, with some ending up on the dark web.

The University of Western Australia has nearly 30,000 students and almost 4000 staff.

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