"Once that information was taken, the hacker sent an email to numerous members of the Penn community. It had the subject line "We got hacked (Action Required)," and it called the school "a dogshit elitist institution full of woke retards." It went on to claim that the school is "completely unmeritocratic" and that "we hire and admit morons because we love legacies, donors, and unqualified affirmative action admits.""
"Sounds political! But the hacker contacted the site Bleeping Computer and said that the real goal was Penn's "vast, wonderfully wealthy donor database" and that, "while we're not really politically motivated, we have no love for these nepobaby-serving institutions." (Among the donors? Elon Musk, who has endowed the Elon Musk Public Lecture at Penn.) That "denial" of political motivations also sounds pretty political, and there's precedent for such actions against educational institutions."
"Columbia University, for instance, was hacked this summer by a "highly sophisticated 'hacktivist' who had gained access to private student records in an attempt to further a political agenda," according to the Associated Press. It's always hard to know how much of this "hactivist" activity is truly motivated private actors, however, as opposed to nation-states disguising their own attempts to steal data and to create political disruption."
A hacker accessed Penn systems, exfiltrated information, and sent an email insulting the university and its admissions practices while demanding action. The intruder claimed the primary target was Penn's wealthy donor database and said the act was not strongly political while disparaging "nepobaby-serving institutions," noting high-profile donors such as Elon Musk. The episode draws parallels to a Columbia breach and raises questions about whether such attacks are private hacktivism or state-backed operations. Penn engaged the FBI and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, faces an alumnus negligence lawsuit, and will require additional mandatory trainings for staff.
Read at Ars Technica
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