Personal data was stolen in an attack on the university's alumni relations and fundraising systems. The leaked data was analyzed by the "Have I Been Pwned" service.
In November 2025, data linked to 850,500 accounts was leaked as a result of a cyberattack on Harvard University's alumni relations and fundraising systems.
"PostMedia" reports this, citing "BleepingComputer".
According to an analysis by "Have I Been Pwned", a service that tracks data breaches, the leaked data contained 851,000 unique email addresses linked to the university's alumni and fundraising systems. The database also included names, dates of birth, phone numbers, physical addresses and social media profiles.
The university detected the attack on November 18, 2025. The attackers gained access to the data of students, alumni, donors, employees and faculty. This data also includes event attendance records, donation details and biographical information related to the university's fundraising activities.
Klara Jelinkova, the university's head of information technology, said that the affected systems did not store Social Security numbers, passwords, payment cards or financial information.
Although the university did not link the attack to a specific group, the "ShinyHunters" group claimed responsibility. The group claimed to have stolen more than one million records. After the university failed to pay the amount demanded for the return and deletion of the stolen data, the group published a 1.1-gigabyte archive of documents in early February.
