Hackers Target Penn, Send Profane Emails To Wharton Students & Alumni

Thousands of members of the University of Pennsylvania community — including Wharton School students and alumni — received a series of profanity-laced emails on Friday morning in what officials are calling a “fraudulent and highly offensive” cyber incident.

The emails carried the same message, sent to some recipients repeatedly — one told Poets&Quants she received it 10 times — that appeared to originate from the Penn Graduate School of Education and carried the subject line “We got hacked (Action Required).” According to The Daily Pennsylvanian and other sources, the emails were sent to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and even applicants across multiple schools at the university.

Described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “a crude email,” the message attacked the university as “a d—–t elitist institution full of woke r—–s” and claimed that Penn “hires morons” because of legacy admissions and donor influence. The sender also accused the school of leaking personal data and urged recipients to “stop giving us money.”

UNIVERSITY DENIES FULL-SCALE HACK

Penn officials sought to reassure the community that central systems remained secure. In an email to the Penn community obtained by Poets&Quants, university officials confirmed that “several offensive messages were sent from a University of Pennsylvania email account affiliated with the Graduate School of Education.”

The Inquirer reported that the fraudulent message appeared to come from a Penn GSE email address and that the university was investigating how it was sent and whether any systems were compromised. The Office of Information Security and the Incident Response Team are “actively investigating,” Penn said in a campus-wide advisory.

“Please be assured that we are working diligently to assess and resolve the situation as quickly as possible. We regret that members of our community were exposed to these messages and appreciate your understanding and patience.”

THREATS & MOTIVE

The emails claimed Penn has violated federal privacy laws under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and warned that “all your data will be leaked.” While no evidence of an actual data breach has been found, The Daily Pennsylvanian noted that the language in the messages targeted hot-button topics such as “woke culture,” affirmative action, and donor privilege — suggesting a politically or ideologically motivated campaign rather than a financially driven hack.

One section of the message explicitly sought to discourage alumni giving: “Please stop giving us money.” The Inquirer reported that the emails reached numerous alumni and donors.

The incident follows a similar politically charged hack at another elite university earlier this year, Columbia, where attackers used mass email tools to disseminate ideological messages under official-looking university headers.

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