In a targeted cyberattack that investigators suspect was politically motivated, a seasoned "hacktivist" allegedly acquired private data from over two million Columbia University students, applicants, and staff.
The savvy hacktivist stole social security numbers, citizenship status, university-issued ID numbers, application choices, employee wages, and other private details on June 24 after taking down the Ivy League's systems for several hours, according to Bloomberg News. A university insider told The Post that the astute hacker appeared to target specific documents to serve their political purpose.
“We immediately began an investigation with the assistance of leading cybersecurity experts and after substantial analysis determined that the outage was caused by an unauthorized party,” Columbia said in a statement Tuesday.
“We now have initial indications that the unauthorized actor also unlawfully stole data from a limited portion of our network. We are investigating the scope of the apparent theft and will share our findings with the University community as well as anyone whose personal information was compromised.”
The lone intruder responsible for the major disruption later admitted to the breach in an anonymous message to Bloomberg News, which said it had investigated the 1.6-gigabyte haul of stolen material. The suspected hacker, who refuses to reveal their name to the site, claimed they targeted the struggling Manhattan university to locate documents revealing the use of affirmative action in admissions, a practice prohibited by the Supreme Court last year.
The trove of extracted documents allegedly comprised 2.5 million applications stretching back decades, as well as financial help packages, the outlet reported.
A university official said Columbia’s admissions processes are compliant with the high court’s ruling.
The cyber trespasser told Bloomberg they were able to infiltrate Columbia’s classified information after spending more than two months gaining access to the university’s servers.
The hours-long incident temporarily locked students and faculty out of university systems and caused bizarre images to appear on screens across campus.
The university also reassured the Columbia community that the Irving Medical Centre was unaffected. Officials said they identified the hacker's tactics and signature and haven't seen any malicious activity since. The attack occurred during the top school's ongoing dispute with the Trump administration, which revoked over $400 million in grants and contracts for the institution's failure to eradicate antisemitism on campus.