Columbia University says student data recently stolen by politically motivated hacker

NEW YORK — A politically motivated hacker breached Columbia University’s data systems last week, stealing troves of student documents while briefly shutting down the school’s computer systems, a university official says Wednesday.

The June 24 cyberattack prompted widespread network outages on campus, locking students and staff out of their email accounts, coursework and video conference software for several hours. On the same day, images of US President Donald Trump’s smiling face appeared on several public monitors across the Manhattan campus.

A spokesperson for Columbia declines to elaborate on the political motivations behind the attack. But officials describe a highly sophisticated “hacktivist” who had gained access to private student records in an attempt to further a political agenda.

The spokesperson says it’s unclear if the Trump photo display was connected to the data breach.

“We are investigating the scope of the apparent theft and will share our findings with the University community as well as anyone whose personal information was compromised,” the school says.