PUBLIC school students across the ACT were spammed with inappropriate emails, including emails with pornographic links, for about three hours on Friday (August 14) before the student email system was shut down. 

Students and parents have since reported that the emails contained requests for nude images, images of genitalia and photos of dead infants.

The incident occurred after the Education Directorate, in April, made a security update to its Google education platform, and in the course of making this update, a series of year-group email distribution lists were created.

On Friday morning a student attempted to share their work with their classmates, using an email distribution list code. The student accidentally sent an email to every year 8 student in ACT public schools, according to Education Minister Yvette Berry. 

“From there, other students used the year 8 email distribution list to share content. Some students quickly figured out how to email other year groups using the year 8 email distribution list code,” Ms Berry said.

“A small number of students shared inappropriate material, including pornographic images, using the email distribution lists. It appears these students copied the inappropriate material from private devices because content like pornography cannot be accessed from within the ACT public schools network.”

No external body has hacked or exported information from the system, Ms Berry said.

On Friday, the Education Directorate sent an email to the parents and carers of public school students saying: “ACT public schools experienced an e-mail incident today which involved spam emails containing inappropriate material being circulated to students.”

“The Education Directorate has responded by temporarily blocking access to the Google platform which includes Gmail, Google drive and Google classroom. This platform will be unavailable until the incident has been investigated and appropriate controls are put in place,” the email said.

The email then went on to ask parents and carers to speak with children and encourage them to delete any content that they may have saved on their personal devices.
 
The Education Directorate shut down the system at about 1pm on Friday and notified the AFP, who are continuing to assist them, Ms Berry said.

“I understand that this incident has caused some anxiety for some students and families and that it has disrupted students being able to study effectively during this time,” Ms Berry said.

She said student access to the systems will be returned in two stages, first with access to Google Drive and Google Classroom, and then access to student email.

“Over the weekend the directorate has been working remove access to global distribution lists and rigorously test their work to ensure students cannot again access the lists,” she said.

The directorate expects students will regain access to Google Drive and Google Classroom by the end of today.

“The directorate is also working to remove all inappropriate material from email accounts and further ensure that students cannot access distribution lists. The directorate expects that students will be able to access their email accounts by the end of this week,” she said.

“All of this work is being tested by external experts to make sure that the system is safe before students regain access to the Google education system.”