Columbia confirms hack stole Social Security numbers, health info
Columbia University recently confirmed a significant cyberattack that compromised personal, financial, and health-related information tied to students, applicants, and employees. The victims of this breach include current and former students, employees, and applicants. Notifications to affected individuals began on Aug. 7 and are continuing on a rolling basis.
The breach at Columbia, one of the oldest Ivy League universities, was discovered after a network outage in June. The university revealed that the disruption was caused by an unauthorized party that accessed its systems and stole sensitive data. Investigators are still working to determine the full scope of the theft.
According to a breach notification filed with the Maine Attorney General’s office, nearly 869,000 individuals were affected by the Columbia breach. This number includes students, employees, applicants, and in some cases, family members. Reports suggest that the threat actor claimed to have stolen approximately 460 gigabytes of data from Columbia’s systems.
The stolen information includes admissions, enrollment, and financial aid records, as well as certain employee data. The exposed information includes names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, contact details, demographic information, academic history, financial aid records, insurance details, and certain health information. Columbia has confirmed that patient records from Columbia University Irving Medical Center were not affected.
Columbia has reported the incident to law enforcement and is working with cybersecurity experts to address the breach. The university has implemented new safeguards and enhanced protocols to prevent future incidents. Affected individuals are being offered two years of complimentary credit monitoring, fraud consultation, and identity theft restoration services.
To protect yourself after the Columbia University breach, consider monitoring your credit reports regularly, using a personal data removal service, setting up fraud alerts and freezes, using strong and unique passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, watching for phishing attempts, and considering identity theft protection services.
The Columbia University breach serves as a reminder that even trusted institutions are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Individuals should remain vigilant and take proactive steps to safeguard their personal information. Universities and large institutions must prioritize cybersecurity to protect the data of those who trust them.
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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist known for his expertise in technology, gear, and gadgets. For more tech insights and to share your thoughts, visit CyberGuy.com.
