The personal information of more than 2,000 TAFE SA students has been stolen in a serious data breach.
TAFE SA said the breach affected students across all campuses who enrolled to study between 2016 and 2021 but it was unable to confirm how or exactly when it occurred.
TAFE SA CEO David Coltman said the stolen details included copies of documents used to enrol into courses, such as driver's licences, proof of age cards, tax file numbers and passports.
An internal investigation found that 87 per cent of the documents accessed have expired.
Mr Coltman said the organisation commissioned an external independent forensic analyst to lead a "robust" investigation into the breach.
"Right now our focus is on supporting our students and we are committed to finding out how this breach occurred," he said.
Mr Coltman said the 2,224 affected students were emailed this morning, and that email bounce-backs will be followed up with a phone call.
"TAFE SA deeply regrets that this has occurred and the inconvenience that this has and will cause our impacted students as a result of the breach," he said.
"We are continuing our investigations into how this data left our organisation and we are ensuring we minimise the likelihood of future breaches."
Mr Coltman said TAFE SA first became aware of the data breach in March last year when SA Police reached out to the organisation after it uncovered copies of the documents on a USB with the details of 24 students during an unrelated investigation.
He said TAFE SA was provided with an additional USB in November 2022 that contained 3,000 lines of data.
A response team was immediately set up to extract the data from the USB.
All staff access to the platform containing the details of students has been restricted and any access will require the CEO's approval.
Mr Coltman said TAFE SA will cover the fees for proof of age and passports for those needing new documents.
"This is a very serious matter for us and it is a very serious matter for our students," he said.
"We have further encrypted all of the data — the student identification data — that we collect from students. That sits now on a separate server."
