Data leak exposes over 560,000 Croatian students and teachers

A significant data breach has potentially exposed the personal information of over 560,000 Croatian students and teachers, raising serious concerns about online security risks. The encrypted file, published on an internet forum, reportedly contains names, surnames, and official school email addresses from the Croatian educational system. Experts and journalists who have reviewed the data confirm its authenticity, with direct checks revealing accurate records for students and their schools.

The scale of the leak is substantial, with one analysis suggesting the database contains 563,509 unique records after deduplication of email addresses. Each record includes the individual's name, surname, the name of their educational institution, user type (student, teacher, or other), and their official email address ending in @skole.hr. The data appears to cover 1,452 schools across Croatia.

Further analysis of the database structure suggests a potential clue to the origin or age of the leak. The data includes records for older primary school students, such as those who have just finished sixth grade, but lacks information for younger students, like those finishing second grade. This observation leads to two possible theories among computer experts trying to pinpoint the security lapse.

One possibility is a leak from a third-party system or application that collects data on activated school accounts. While @skole.hr accounts are typically created automatically when a child enrolls in first grade, they are often more actively used in higher grades for platforms like Microsoft Teams and other school applications. The other theory is that an older backup of the database may have been compromised. This is supported by the fact that the number of records significantly exceeds the current active student population in Croatia, implying that data from previous generations might also be included.