A lone hacker stole the personal details of thousands of Australian military staff during an audacious attack he conducted "for fun".

The raid, which breached a university database at the Australian Defence Force Academy last month, is one of the worst known cyber attacks on a government organisation in this country.

ADFA graduation parade in Canberra Credit:Andrew Sheargold

Several websites linked to the online movement Anonymous now host the stolen information, which includes a mix of names, identification numbers, passwords, email addresses and dates of birth of about 10,000 students and 1900 staff at the university.

Among the victims are hundreds of senior officers in the army, navy and air force, as well as military personnel from other nations who are enrolled at the academy.