Hackers Claim to Have Senators’ Emails and Phone Numbers after Ransomware Attack on Oklahoma University

The University of Oklahoma is investigating a potential breach after hackers claimed to have stolen sensitive data from the school’s IT network.

The public research university, in Norman in the US state of Oklahoma, has some 34,000 students enrolled, and employs nearly 4,000 faculty members, as of the fall of 2024.

The university offers hundreds of baccalaureate, master's, doctoral, and certificate programs.

On Tuesday, news broke out that the school had suffered a cyber intrusion. The perps allegedly made off with employee contacts, financial data (audits, payments, reports), and the phone numbers and email addresses of unnamed state senators in what appeared to be a targeted ransomware attack.

The breach was claimed by the Fog hacking crew – a relatively new group on the ransomware scene, notorious for targeting large educational institutions in the United States.

‘Unusual activity on our IT network’

Contacted by journalists from Recorded Future News, the school neither confirmed nor denied the claims, saying only:

“The University recently identified unusual activity on our IT network. Upon discovery, we isolated certain systems and are investigating the matter. As part of this ongoing process, measures are being implemented across our network.”

The university did not respond to questions about what might’ve caused the incident, what systems were targeted and how they were impacted, or negotiations for ransom.

A potentially targeted attack

The files allegedly obtained by the hackers weigh in at a meagre 91 MB.

Data dumps from ransomware attacks typically range in gigabytes, not megabytes. Hackers try to copy as much data as possible before victims trigger an incident response routine.

This either suggests the University of Oklahoma had strong cybersecurity safeguards in place (capable of limiting the impact of the breach), or that the attack targeted only a specific area of the IT network where data usable for extortion might be found.

OU affiliates should be vigilant

If you’re with the University of Oklahoma in any measure, stay vigilant. Don’t respond to unsolicited texts or calls citing your personal information or demanding something.

Hackers like the Fog crew typically sell data stolen in breaches to high-bidding fraudsters who then use it to target collateral victims with socially engineered scams and extortion.

For peace of mind, consider using a dedicated security solution that watches over your shoulder when your data is caught up in a breach.