Dear members of the Columbia community,
Last week, we reported a technical outage that disrupted certain University IT systems. Our team worked quickly to restore our operations, immediately launched an investigation with the assistance of leading cybersecurity experts, and notified law enforcement.
While the investigation is ongoing, we have, after substantial analysis, determined that the outage was caused by an unauthorized party with the apparent intent to disrupt our systems. We also have initial indications that the unauthorized party stole data from our network. We are diligently investigating the scope of the apparent theft. We have not observed unauthorized access to our network since June 24 and will continue to monitor closely for further unlawful activity in our systems. We have implemented a number of safeguards across the University’s systems to enhance our security. Additionally, we reaffirm that Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) operations were not affected. While our investigation is ongoing, we currently have no evidence suggesting that health records maintained by the medical center system were compromised by this incident.
We know that this news may raise questions and concerns across our community about the scope of the affected personal information. Our team is working toward answers. This process will take time, and we ask for your patience. If we determine that personal information was compromised, we will, of course, communicate directly with those affected individuals.
Moving forward, we will be examining what additional steps we can take and what other safeguards we can implement to prevent something like this from happening again.
We have established an information hotline, (866) 819-7006, that members of the University community can call with questions. This information hotline will be staffed 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, excluding major U.S. holidays.
Thank you for your understanding during this challenging situation.
