A hacker successfully penetrated Columbia University’s admissions database and extracted personal information from 2.5 million student applications over multiple decades, according to reporting on the incident.
The breach occurred as part of what university officials describe as a “hacktivist” operation targeting the Ivy League institution’s continued use of race-based admissions policies.
The perpetrator accessed 1.6 gigabytes of sensitive student data during the infiltration, which included university identification numbers, citizenship information and admissions decisions spanning years of application cycles.
Columbia University joins a growing list of higher education institutions that have fallen victim to sophisticated cyberattacks targeting their digital infrastructure and confidential records.
The university experienced a comprehensive information technology shutdown on June 24 that prevented students and faculty from accessing email systems and other critical university services for nearly one week.
The disruption lasted until June 29, when university administrators announced that normal operations had resumed across campus systems.
The New York Times reported that during the outage period, computer screens throughout the university displayed an image of President Donald Trump smiling, including monitors located in high-traffic areas such as the student center.
University officials confirmed that the system disruption resulted from unauthorized access by an external party who gained