Columbia University investigates suspected cyberattack after widespread system outages
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Columbia University is investigating a suspected cyberattack as of June 24, 2025, that resulted in widespread IT system outages across its Morningside campus in New York City. The incident began around 7:00 AM local time and prompted the university to notify law enforcement and work closely with the New York Police Department to investigate the disruption.
A law enforcement official characterized the incident as an "access control attack," though university officials emphasized that there is no sign of data being compromised, or of ransomware, and there does not appear to have been a "deep incursion" into Columbia's systems.
The attack disrupted academic and administrative operations, preventing students from accessing critical university services including email, CourseWorks (the platform where professors post assignments), and the UNI authentication service required for logging into university accounts.
Students share images on social media of digital signs on campus that were taken over and replaced with images of President Donald Trump. These unauthorized displays appeared on various screens across campus, including dormitory televisions, creating visible evidence of the security breach.
The nature of the attack, any impacted data or number of affected individuals is not disclosed.
The university's main website displayed a banner acknowledging the "widespread system outages" and assuring the community that IT teams were working to restore services as quickly as possible. University officials and sources close to the investigation have been careful to distinguish this incident from more destructive cyberattacks, noting the absence of typical indicators associated with ransomware campaigns or comprehensive data breaches.
Update - Columbia University confirmed that the incident exposed personal information of students and applicants, including their acceptance or rejection status. The stolen data contains 1.6 gigabytes of information representing approximately 2.5 million applications dating back decades, according to the person claiming responsibility for the June hack.
As of 2nd of July 2025, Columbia University reports that a hacktivist with a "political agenda" is behind the attack, stealing student application data spanning decades as part of an apparent investigation into the university's admissions practices. The attacker reportedly spent two months penetrating university servers and claims to have stolen 460 gigabytes of data including information from 2.5 million applications, financial aid details, and at least 1.8 million Social Security numbers.
As of 5th of August 2025, based on Bloomberg's review of 53.6 gigabytes of stolen files, the breach exposed comprehensive personal and academic information:
- Bank account and routing numbers
- Student loan and scholarship disbursements
- Standardized test scores
- Grade-point averages
- Class schedules
- Home addresses and contact information
- Social Security numbers
- Student university identification numbers
- Student financial aid packages
- Employee pay information
- Citizenship status
- Applicant data including admission decisions and program applications
- Personal information from applications dating back decades
- Whether applicants were accepted or rejected by the school
As of 7th August 2025, the university said that the data breach affects 868,969 individuals, including employees, applicants, current and former students, and family members.
