Ministry assures student loan and scholarship data is secure after alleged hack

Serbia's Ministry of Education has issued assurances that the personal data of students who applied for loans and scholarships remains secure, despite reports of a potential hacker attack.

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According to the information we have, the data stored in the system is completely safe and has not been altered by unauthorized persons.

The ministry stated that upon becoming aware of a possible breach targeting the portal kreditistipendije.prosveta.gov.rs, immediate technical measures were enacted to prevent any data leakage. Responding to inquiries about the alleged compromise of data belonging to 83,373 students, the ministry firmly asserted that all information stored within the system is completely safe and has not been altered by unauthorized individuals.

This incident marks the first time the ministry has reported a suspected compromise of its information systems. While users attempting to access the affected website were met with a message indicating "system improvement" and expected unavailability, the ministry maintains that the data itself was not accessed or modified.

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The ministry had previously become aware of a potential hacker attack on the information system for student loans and scholarships, and immediately ordered all necessary technical measures to prevent data leakage.

The ministry's swift response and public statement aim to reassure students and the public about the security of their sensitive information, emphasizing that robust protocols are in place to protect against cyber threats.

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In addition, this is the first case of reporting suspicion of data compromise for all systems managed by the Ministry.