Queensland education sector hit by huge global cyberattack affecting an estimated 200 ...

Queensland state schools have been hit by a cyberattack affecting more than 9,000 institutions worldwide, with data including names, email addresses, and school locations compromised in the breach.

The Queensland education sector has been hit by a massive global cyberattack affecting an estimated 200 million people globally.

The state's Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the breach involved a third-party provider, Instructure, which delivers the Department’s online learning platform, QLearn.

Students and staff working or studying at Queensland schools since 2020, when the former government introduced the online system, have been affected.

Names, email addresses, and school locations have been compromised in the breach.

Mr Langbroek said there is "no evidence" that passwords, dates of birth or financial information were accessed.

A threat actor group known as ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for the hack.

It is also understood that the attackers may be attempting to extort a ransom in exchange for not releasing the data.

"This incident has impacted thousands of educational institutions, including state schools and universities within Queensland, across Australia and overseas, and early advice is this will impact more than 200 million people and more than 9,000 institutions worldwide," Mr Langbroek said on Thursday.

"School principals are in the process of contacting families and teachers to advise them of the breach.

"The Department of Education is providing priority support to families and teachers with known family and domestic violence, or those known to Child Safety.

"The Department of Education will continue to update Queenslanders as further information is available."

Principals have been given a pre-approved template to use if affected individuals need to be notified that their data has been released publicly, The Courier Mail reports.

Letters are expected to be sent to the last known postal addresses of those impacted.

The department also attended an online coordination meeting on Thursday morning with other institutions around the world that have been affected by the same incident.

Last year, Western Sydney University suffered a huge data breach , with a range of sensitive student information being stolen in the attack.

Tax file numbers, passport details, and private health and disability information were all compromised.

Sensitive data, such as names, dates of birth, ethnicity, employment and payroll details, bank account details, driver’s licence details, passport and visa information, complaint and case information, and legal information, was also stolen.