Medical Records Of High School Students Leaked In Data Breach

A data breach has taken place at a Melbourne high school which resulted in the confidential healthcare records of students being published online.

The security incident, which took place at Strathmore secondary college in Melbourne, was deemed “nothing short of appalling” by Victoria education minister, James Merlino, as reported by The Guardian.

In total, over 300 records were reportedly published online late Monday evening and remained available until Tuesday. The records included data on student physical and mental health conditions, medications required, as well as behavioral and learning difficulties.

“It’s distressing for students and their parents because it may result in embarrassment, in bullying,” Merlino said. “These things should not happen.”

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The information leak is believed to be due to human error, with the records published from the school’s intranet, which should remain closed to the public.

The Herald Sun reports that the principal of Strathmore secondary college, Jillian English, has apologized and said the school was investigating how the data breach was permitted to take place.

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“Our school takes privacy and data security very seriously and I recently arranged professional development for my staff to ensure they are able to follow best practice,” English told the publication.

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In July, SingHealth, Singapore’s largest group of healthcare institutions, revealed that personal data belonging to 1.5 million patients — including the prime minister — had been “accessed and copied” without consent. National identification numbers, addresses, and dates of birth were involved in the breach.

ZDNet has reached out to Strathmore college and will update if we hear back.

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