Recently, Ivy League universities in the United States have been facing frequent cyber attacks, with Harvard University reporting its second data breach this year.
According to Bloomberg on Saturday (November 22), Harvard University reported that its database had been hacked, leading to the theft of some alumni and students’ information. The university mentioned on its website that it experienced a phishing attack on Tuesday (November 18), where an “unauthorized third party” accessed a database containing information of alumni, donors, some students, and faculty members.
The stolen information from Harvard University includes personal contact details, donation specifics, and other data related to fundraising and alumni activities.
Harvard University, known as one of the oldest and wealthiest universities in the United States, is also one of the most successful in fundraising, receiving over $1 billion in social donations annually.
In October, Harvard University stated that it was investigating a data breach incident in the hacking activities against Oracle Corporation’s clients.
Harvard University has not disclosed any suspected perpetrators of the cyber attack.
Tim Bailey, the Communications Director of Harvard University’s Information Technology Department, stated in a release that immediate action had been taken by Harvard to revoke the unauthorized access rights to the campus system by the attackers and prevent further unauthorized access.
“We are collaborating with third-party cybersecurity experts and law enforcement to investigate this incident,” he added.
For years, American universities have been targets of hacker attacks, but in the past few months, Ivy League schools have been particularly hard hit.
On November 15, a database containing information of alumni, donors, students, and other university members at Princeton University was breached. On October 31, the information system related to the development and alumni activities at the University of Pennsylvania was compromised.
According to a report submitted to state government officials by Columbia University, the school has been investigating a hacking incident since June. This incident led to the leakage of personal information of around 870,000 individuals, including students and applicants.
(Based on reporting from Bloomberg)