A seasoned “hacktivist” reportedly stole sensitive data from more than two million Columbia University students, applicants and employees in a targeted cyberattack officials believe was politically motivated.
The sophisticated digital activist, who knocked the Ivy League’s systems offline for several hours on June 24, swiped social security numbers, citizenship status, university-issued ID numbers, application decisions, employee salaries, and other private records, Bloomberg News reported.
A university official told The Post the savvy hacker appeared to target specific documents to advance their political agenda.
“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 out findings with the University community as well as anyone whose personal information was compromised.”
Hellbound and Down 