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Data breach

Columbia University cyber-attack exposes personal data of about 3.1 million people

First reported · Last reported · 32 related reports

A cyber-attack on Columbia University in June 2025 disrupted IT services and exposed personal information. The number of people affected rose from an initial estimate of about 870,000 to about 3.1 million, and the exposed information included Social Security numbers, financial account details, academic records and medical information. The university agreed to pay US$16.1 million to settle related litigation, and an investigation in October 2026 found no evidence that the stolen information had been sold or distributed on the dark web.

Key facts

Affected organisation
Columbia University
Incident type
Data breach
Occurred / detected
Not confirmed
Scale of damage
Personal information of about 3.1 million people
Cause / method
Cyber-attack and data theft by a politically motivated attacker
Location
United States

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Timeline

  1. An IT outage affected key student services, raising the possibility of a cyber-attack.
  2. The university said data had been stolen in the attack that caused the IT outage.
  3. The exposure of personal information belonging to about 870,000 people was reported.
  4. The university agreed to a US$16.1 million settlement in litigation over the June 2025 breach.
  5. The university’s investigation found no evidence that the stolen information had been sold or distributed on the dark web.
  6. The increase in the number of people affected to about 3.1 million and the opening of settlement claims were reported.

32 related reports

The summary and key facts are written by AI from related reports and may contain errors. Check the original articles and the organisation’s official statements for accurate details.