The Australian Nationwide College (ANU) has contacted authorities a few potential hacking incident after its vice-chancellor’s account appreciated quite a lot of “extremely offensive” LinkedIn posts about Gaza and Julie Bishop.
One of many posts appreciated by Genevieve Bell’s account was an inflammatory publish about Gaza, whereas one other made adverse feedback about Bishop, the ANU chancellor and a former overseas minister.
A spokesperson for ANU stated it was made conscious on Wednesday morning that Bell’s LinkedIn account had been “compromised”.
“The LinkedIn account had ‘appreciated’ sure posts that the VC had by no means seen,” the spokesperson stated.
“A few of the appreciated content material was extremely offensive and objectionable to the VC and that are additionally inconsistent with the values set by the Council for ANU.
“We take one of these behaviour severely.”
An inside investigation was below method, and the matter had been referred to the Australian Cyber Safety Centre.
The senior reporter for the Saturday Paper, Rick Morton, posted to Bluesky on Wednesday afternoon that he had notified ANU a few collection of questionable posts appreciated by Bell’s account.
“The ‘likes’ had been in amongst regular posts the VC account had appreciated or reacted to concerning the work of the college and her former and beloved faculty, Cybernetics, so it’s a really unusual one,” he wrote.
“I look ahead to what the investigation finds.”
The incident comes amid a restructure at ANU to cut about $100m from staff costs through its Renew ANU plan with the purpose for a break-even working outcome for 2026.
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It additionally follows a damning report on the establishment’s tradition launched late final month.
The independent review into ANU’s former College of Health and Medicine, led by Prof Christine Nixon, outlined allegations of sexism, racism and entrenched disrespect within the now defunct faculty, described as sobering studying by Bell.
In an announcement on Tuesday updating workers on the college’s funds, Bell acknowledged it had been a “actually exhausting interval” for the group.
“I do know that every of us cares for this place and for our colleagues and college students,” she wrote.
“And I do know we are attempting to have conversations as respectfully and as empathetically as we will as a result of each dialog has ripples to the folks and groups they affect.
“And I do know we’ve a lot work forward of us – with the Nixon report, with the modifications we’re making, with the complexity of the world altering round us that we’ve to maintain navigating.”
