Harvard Alumni Affairs breach claimed by ShinyHunters exposed data tied to 851,000 email addresses, per Have I Been Pwned
Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) confirmed that the November 2025 breach of Harvard University's Alumni Affairs and Development systems exposed data linked to about 851,000 unique email addresses (850,500 accounts). Harvard discovered the intrusion on November 18, 2025. It has not attributed the attack, but the ShinyHunters extortion gang claimed responsibility and said it stole over 1 million records. After Harvard refused to pay, the group leaked a 1.1GB archive on its leak site in early February. HIBP analyzed that leak and found extensive profile data on donors, alumni, parents and some faculty, staff and students.
Detalhes técnicos
- Exposed data: names, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, home and business addresses, social media profiles, event attendance records, donation details and fundraising and alumni-engagement biographical information.
- Harvard's CIO, Klara Jelinkova, said the affected systems did not store Social Security numbers, passwords, payment card data or financial information.
- The article does not state the initial access vector.
- Context: Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania disclosed breaches in November 2025 in which donor information was accessed. Separately, in October 2025 Harvard investigated a second incident claimed by the Clop ransomware gang via an Oracle E-Business Suite zero-day. The University of Phoenix was also breached through that flaw, affecting nearly 3.5 million people.
Remediação
The article gives no specific remediation guidance. Because the data is publicly leaked, affected alumni and donors should expect targeted phishing and social engineering that abuse the donation and biographical details.
Linha do tempo
-
Harvard Alumni Affairs breach claimed by ShinyHunters exposed data tied to 851,000 email addresses, per Have I Been Pwned
ler a análise desta fonte ocultar
Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) confirmed that the November 2025 breach of Harvard University's Alumni Affairs and Development systems exposed data linked to about 851,000 unique email addresses (850,500 accounts). Harvard discovered the intrusion on November 18, 2025. It has not attributed the attack, but the ShinyHunters extortion gang claimed responsibility and said it stole over 1 million records. After Harvard refused to pay, the group leaked a 1.1GB archive on its leak site in early February. HIBP analyzed that leak and found extensive profile data on donors, alumni, parents and some faculty, staff and students.
Technical Details
- Exposed data: names, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, home and business addresses, social media profiles, event attendance records, donation details and fundraising and alumni-engagement biographical information.
- Harvard's CIO, Klara Jelinkova, said the affected systems did not store Social Security numbers, passwords, payment card data or financial information.
- The article does not state the initial access vector.
- Context: Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania disclosed breaches in November 2025 in which donor information was accessed. Separately, in October 2025 Harvard investigated a second incident claimed by the Clop ransomware gang via an Oracle E-Business Suite zero-day. The University of Phoenix was also breached through that flaw, affecting nearly 3.5 million people.
Remediation
The article gives no specific remediation guidance. Because the data is publicly leaked, affected alumni and donors should expect targeted phishing and social engineering that abuse the donation and biographical details.