Hacker With 'Political Agenda' Stole Data From Columbia, University Says (therecord.media)
(Wednesday July 02, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the admissions-unmasked dept.)
- Reference: 0178265684
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/07/03/0012219/hacker-with-political-agenda-stole-data-from-columbia-university-says
- Source link: https://therecord.media/hacker-political-agenda-columbia-cyberattack
A politically motivated hacker [1]breached Columbia University's IT systems, [2] stealing vast amounts of sensitive student and employee data -- including admissions decisions and Social Security numbers. The Record reports:
> The hacker reportedly provided Bloomberg News with 1.6 gigabytes of data they claimed to have stolen from the university, including information from 2.5 million applications going back decades. The stolen data the outlet reviewed reportedly contains details on whether applicants were rejected or accepted, their citizenship status, their university ID numbers and which academic programs they sought admission to. While the hacker's claims have not been independently verified, Bloomberg said it compared data provided by the hacker to that belonging to eight Columbia applicants seeking admission between 2019 and 2024 and found it matched.
>
> The threat actor reportedly told Bloomberg he was seeking information that would indicate whether the university continues to use affirmative action in admissions despite a 2023 Supreme Court decision prohibiting the practice. The hacker told Bloomberg he obtained 460 gigabytes of data in total -- after spending two months targeting and penetrating increasingly privileged layers of the university's servers -- and said he harvested information about financial aid packages, employee pay and at least 1.8 million Social Security numbers belonging to employees, applicants, students and their family members.
[1] https://communications.news.columbia.edu/news/university-statement-it-outage-june-24-2025
[2] https://therecord.media/hacker-political-agenda-columbia-cyberattack
> The hacker reportedly provided Bloomberg News with 1.6 gigabytes of data they claimed to have stolen from the university, including information from 2.5 million applications going back decades. The stolen data the outlet reviewed reportedly contains details on whether applicants were rejected or accepted, their citizenship status, their university ID numbers and which academic programs they sought admission to. While the hacker's claims have not been independently verified, Bloomberg said it compared data provided by the hacker to that belonging to eight Columbia applicants seeking admission between 2019 and 2024 and found it matched.
>
> The threat actor reportedly told Bloomberg he was seeking information that would indicate whether the university continues to use affirmative action in admissions despite a 2023 Supreme Court decision prohibiting the practice. The hacker told Bloomberg he obtained 460 gigabytes of data in total -- after spending two months targeting and penetrating increasingly privileged layers of the university's servers -- and said he harvested information about financial aid packages, employee pay and at least 1.8 million Social Security numbers belonging to employees, applicants, students and their family members.
[1] https://communications.news.columbia.edu/news/university-statement-it-outage-june-24-2025
[2] https://therecord.media/hacker-political-agenda-columbia-cyberattack
Smiling picture of Trump (Score:1)
Don't forget that an image of President Donald Trump smiling appeared on public screens, including in the student center. Anyone traumatized by being exposed to that without trigger warning should get a free passing grade in their *ism studies class.
Re: (Score:2)
Thought I was having a nightmare. An 80 year old dementia patient running the country.
Re: (Score:1)
They could always ask Biden interns for tips how to best use auto-pen.
Re: (Score:2)
Liars gonna lie!!!!
> trump claims without evidence that Biden's Jan. 6 panel pardons are void because he allegedly used an autopen
> White House lawyers during the George W. Bush administration said the use of an autopen is perfectly legal, and constitutional scholars say that nothing in the Constitution even requires pardons to be signed anyway