Hackers steal student info from Vic school

Hackers have stolen student information from a Melbourne high school, posting it online and sending emails to parents pretending to be from the principal.

The Victorian Education Department is working with police to identify hackers who illegally downloaded information from Blackburn High School's computer system.

The school realised on Friday that data had been accessed and posted to at least one file-sharing website, including details of current and past students.

It then contacted police and secured the system.

The hackers also sent fake emails to parents, purporting to be from the school's principal.

A parent told 3AW the emails asked parents to enter credit card details into what was "supposed to be a high school site".

"I believe a number of parents did actually provide their credit card details," he told 3AW on Wednesday.

The department says IT experts were used to discover the location of the information posted online and it was removed from the site.

"The Department shares the school's concern about this unauthorised access of information and worked over the weekend to establish how it happened and to support students and parents affected by the incident," a department spokeswoman said in a statement.

Police confirmed they are investigating and the education department says a person of interest is "assisting with inquiries".

Blackburn High School is not commenting on the incident and passed requests for information to the department of education.

The school had more than 1000 students enrolled in 2016, according to the MySchool website.