University of Pennsylvania Data Breach: Hacker Threat to Leak Data

Data Breach at University of Pennsylvania: Hackers Target Alumni and Staff

On Friday morning, individuals connected to the University of Pennsylvania – including alumni, students, staff, and community members – began receiving unsolicited emails. These emails falsely originated from actors claiming to represent the university’s Graduate School of Education (GSE).

Threatening Messages and Data Leak Claims

The emails contained a disturbing message, stating, “We have terrible security practices and are completely unmeritocratic.” A particularly alarming claim within the message asserted, “We love breaking federal rules like FERPA (all your data will be leaked).”

These messages were dispatched from a multitude of Penn-affiliated email accounts, including those associated with the GSE. Furthermore, the emails appeared to be sent from several high-ranking university staff members.

Numerous Penn affiliates reported receiving the same email repeatedly, but from different senders utilizing legitimate @upenn.edu email addresses. (Note: As a former employee and alumna of the university, the author has personally received this message on three separate occasions.)

University Response and Investigation

According to a statement provided to TechCrunch by Penn spokesperson Ron Ozio, the school’s incident response team is “actively addressing” the security incident.

Ozio clarified, “A fraudulent email has been circulated that appears to come from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. This is obviously a fake, and nothing in the highly offensive, hurtful message reflects the mission or actions of Penn or of Penn GSE.”

Potential Motives Behind the Breach

The hackers explicitly indicated in their message (“Please stop giving us money”) that the breach may be an attempt to curtail alumni donations. This incident also follows the university’s recent decision to decline a proposal from the White House.

The White House had offered commitments aligned with the previous administration’s political agenda in exchange for federal funding. Penn, along with six other institutions, rejected this proposal.

Details of the White House’s “Compact for Academic Excellence”

The White House’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” outlined several requirements for participating universities. These included:

• Abolishing affirmative action in both hiring and admissions processes.
• Disciplining departments perceived as suppressing conservative ideas.

Additional stipulations of the compact involved:

• Freezing tuition rates for a period of five years.
• Providing tuition-free education for students specializing in “hard sciences.”
• Limiting international undergraduate enrollment to a maximum of 15%.
• Mandating the use of standardized tests, such as the SAT, for admissions.

The compact also included provisions that would enforce policies potentially detrimental to transgender and gender non-conforming students.

Penn’s Rejection of the Compact

Penn president J. Larry Jameson articulated the university’s position in a response to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, which was subsequently published on the university’s official website.

Jameson stated, “[The compact] preferences and mandates protections for the communication of conservative thought alone.” He further emphasized that “One-sided conditions conflict with the viewpoint diversity and freedom of expression that are central to how universities contribute to democracy and to society.”