Hackers Breach University of Pennsylvania, Threaten Data Leak
Hackers posing as representatives of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (GSE) sent multiple emails to alumni, students, faculty, and community members on Friday morning.
The email stated, “We are totally unmeritocratic and have terrible security practices.” “We enjoy violating federal regulations such as FERPA (all your data will be leaked).”
This communication purported to be from numerous senior staff members at Penn and was sent from various Penn-affiliated email addresses, including the GSE.
The email has been sent to other Penn affiliates several times by several senders using official @upenn.edu email addresses. (Disclosure: As a former employee and alumnus of the university, I have already received the message to my personal email three times.)
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University Confirms Ongoing Investigation into Email Breach
The incident response team at Penn is “actively addressing” the issue, according to an email sent to TechCrunch on Friday by Penn spokesperson Ron Ozio.
“A phony email purporting to be from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania has been making the rounds. Ozio stated, “This is clearly a fake, and nothing in the extremely hurtful and offensive message reflects the goals or actions of Penn or of Penn GSE.”
This breach seems to be driven to stifle alumni donations, as the hackers made clear in their letter (“Please stop giving us money”). The university publicly rejected the White House’s invitation to make pledges aligned with the Trump administration’s political agenda in exchange for government funds, which coincided with the breach. Penn and six other universities have rejected the White House’s proposal.
Affirmative action in recruiting and admissions should be eliminated, and departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence toward conservative ideas” should be disciplined, according to the White House’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
Political Context Linked to University Data Breach
Additionally, Compact participants would have to cap international undergrad enrollment at 15%, grant tuition-free education to students pursuing “hard sciences,” freeze tuition for five years, and require standardized examinations like the SAT for entrance.
Additionally, the compact requires schools to implement rules that discriminate against kids who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming.
In his answer to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Penn President J. Larry Jameson wrote, “[The compact] prefers and mandates protections for the communication of conservative ideas alone,” which was posted on the university’s website.
According to Jameson, “one-sided conditions conflict with the viewpoint variety and freedom of expression that are essential to how universities support democracy and to society.”