The University of Minnesota has confirmed that it has notified state and federal agencies of a potentially significant data breach.
University officials said they "became aware that an unauthorized party claiming to possess sensitive data allegedly taken from the University's systems" late last month.
The University said that, as soon as the claim was discovered on July 21, they launched an investigation.
A spokesperson for the University said they aren't prepared to comment on the size of the alleged data breach, but they're working with law enforcement in the investigation.
The preliminary assessment is that the data at issue is from 2021 and earlier. In a statement, the University says they're working on overall system security through actions such as enhancing multi-factor authentication capabilities and increasing the frequency of monitoring activities.
The University has also run additional scans that did not reveal ongoing suspicious activity related to the incident.