An attempt to save on parking allegedly put a university student on a path to altering her marks and threatening to sell other students' data following a series of cyber attacks.
The 27-year-old woman is due to face court on Thursday after being charged with a slew of fraud and hacking offences.
Police allege she was behind a series of cyber attacks on Western Sydney University, starting in 2021.
They say it began with system exploits in an attempt to secure unauthorised discounts for parking on campus.
But they will allege it escalated into alterations to her academic results and threats to sell other students' confidential data on the dark web.
The university suffered a series of hacks involving unauthorised access, data exfiltration, system compromises and unauthorised use of the institution's infrastructure, police allege.
Hundreds of staff and students were affected.
The former student was arrested as police seized computer equipment and mobile devices during a raid on a Kingswood unit on Wednesday.
The woman is due to face Penrith Local Court charged with 20 offences, including 10 counts of modifying or accessing restricted data.
She is also accused of dishonestly obtaining property and financial advantage by deception.
