Hackers threaten to leak data after hacking the University of Pennsylvania to send mass emails

4 days agoLast Updated: October 31, 2025

4 8 minutes read

Hackers threaten to leak data after hacking the University of Pennsylvania to send mass emails

By Amanda Silberling | Published: 2025-10-31 17:30:00 | Source: TechCrunch

On Friday morning, Penn State alumni, students, staff and community members received several emails from hackers claiming to represent the university’s Graduate School of Education (GSE).

“We have terrible security practices and are completely untrustworthy,” the email said. “We love breaking federal rules like FERPA (all your data will be leaked).”

Partially redacted email sent by hackers with access to the University of Pennsylvania email system.Image credits:TechCrunch (screenshot)

This message was sent from a variety of different Penn email accounts, such as GSE, as well as allegedly coming from several senior faculty members across the university.

Other Penn affiliates received the email multiple times from different senders with an administrator @upenn.edu Email addresses. (Disclosure: As an alumna and former university employee, I have received the message three times now on my personal email.)

Penn spokesman Ron Osio told TechCrunch in an email on Friday that the school’s incident response team is “actively addressing” the situation.

“A fraudulent email that appears to be from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education has been circulating. This is clearly fake, and nothing in the deeply offensive and hurtful message reflects the mission or actions of Penn or the Pennsylvania GSE.

As the hackers clearly stated in their message (“Please stop giving us money”), the motive behind this hack appears to be to suppress alumni donations. The breakthrough also comes shortly after college He was publicly rejected The White House has offered to make commitments consistent with the Trump administration’s political agenda in exchange for federal funding. Ben W Six other schools They rejected the White House proposal.

The White House-approved Charter for Academic Excellence in Higher Education calls on universities to eliminate affirmative action in recruiting and admissions, and to discipline administrations that “punish, belittle, and even provoke violence against conservative ideas.”

Signatories to the agreement will also be required to freeze tuition fees for five years, offer free education to students pursuing the “hard sciences,” cap international university enrollment at 15%, and require standardized tests such as the SAT for admission.

The agreement also stipulates that schools implement policies that marginalize transgender and gender non-conforming students.

Penn State President J. Larry Jameson in his book: “(The Charter) favors and imposes protections for the communication of conservative thought alone.” answer To Education Minister Linda McMahon, which was published on the university’s website.

“One-sided conditions run counter to the diversity of viewpoints and freedom of expression that are fundamental to how universities contribute to democracy and society,” Jameson wrote.

(tags for translation) Data Breach

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