A former Western Sydney University student allegedly escalated from hacking into the uni’s servers for free parking to threatening the sale of her peers’ data on the dark web.
Police said the hacks began in 2021, when the woman allegedly first accessed the school’s servers to secure free parking on campus.
Once inside the university’s system, the former student then allegedly began changing her own grades before then downloading personal information and threatening to sell it on the dark web, police have alleged.
With help from the Australian Federal Police and cyber security experts, NSW Police said they then identified that the hacker was a former student at the university.
The woman, 27, was arrested on Wednesday during a search of her home in Kingswood, where police seized a mobile phone and other electronic devices.
She was charged with 21 offences, including 10 counts of accessing or modifying data held in a computer.
She was refused bail by police and is expected to appear in Parramatta Local Court on Thursday.
In July last year the university notified staff and students that a hacker had stolen 580 terabytes of data, though whether or not yesterday’s arrest is related has not been confirmed.
In total, the bank details, tax file numbers and other sensitive personal details of more than 7,500 were stolen in the breach at the time.