A hacker broke into Columbia University’s IT systems last week and stole student data in a cyberattack that officials believe was politically motivated.
The breach, which occurred on June 24, caused a systemwide outage that temporarily locked students and faculty out of online platforms, including their university email accounts.
On Thursday, a Columbia official told The Epoch Times that early findings indicate that the intruder was a “hacktivist”—a hacker motivated by political activism rather than financial gain, as is typical with ransomware attacks.
“The university’s investigation has indicated the hackers are highly sophisticated and were very targeted in their theft of documents,” the official said in an emailed statement. “They broke in and stole student data with the apparent goal of furthering their political agenda.”…