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UNSW denies LulzSec breach claim

Director of IT says harvested password was incorrect

A University of New South Wales (UNSW) email address was included in hacker group LulzSec's harvested email list, which also included addresses from a number of other educational institutions and local government bodies, but the university has reported its network is uncompromised.

Leaked email addresses and passwords included those from AusAid, Victorian Government departments, local councils in Victoria and New South Wales, the Australian National University and the University of Queensland. Two high schools in Queensland and Melbourne were also believed to be in the list.

UNSW director of IT, Michael Kirby, said in a statement that there had been no breaches of network security. "Only one current UNSW email address was included in the group’s list but the associated password was incorrect," said Kirby.

“ The password cited by LulzSec is not a valid password for any UNSW staff or student. "

While he said that the integrity of staff and students accounts, including email, had not been compromised, the university would continue to monitor the situation.

Has your email account been affected by LulzSec? Let us know below!

Got a security tip-off? Contact Hamish Barwick at hamish_barwick at idg.com.au

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Australian National University, etwork, University of New South Wales, University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, University of Queensland, UNSW
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Comments

1

Jane Colwall

Fri 17/06/2011 - 21:45

UNSW changed all our passwords, and we had to find Kirby to get ours back. Cant belive he lied.

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