A little-known extortion group has claimed a 296 GB data haul from Columbia University, listing the theft under a dental label that points to the university’s College of Dental Medicine operations.
Global Secret Group, which ransomware.live flags as an emerging operation, posted the claim on August 14 with details of 283,387 files across 11,268 folders. The listing names Columbia University Information (Dental) and describes the data as university property, without specifying whether patient records from the dental school’s clinics are included.
The claim is corroborated by RansomLook, which logged the posting the same day, and remains unconfirmed. Emerging groups sometimes inflate or fabricate hauls to build credibility, so the actual contents are uncertain until samples appear or Columbia responds.
Dental schools are an unusual but logical target: they hold clinical patient records, student and staff identity data, and research files in one administrative footprint, often with security budgets far smaller than academic medical centers. Universities that run clinical teaching practices should treat patient data as covered by the same HIPAA obligations as any provider, segment clinical records from academic systems, and rehearse a response plan for extortion claims, including legal guidance on how to handle leak site postings before victims are identified.
