Harvard Data Breach

What happened?

In November 2025, Harvard University suffered a data breach later linked to a ShinyHunters "pay or leak" extortion attempt . The data contained 851k unique email addresses relating to the university's alumni and fundraising systems, along with extensive profile information for donors, alumni, parents and some faculty, staff and students. In Harvard's disclosure notice , the university stated that the breach impacted "personal information such as email addresses, telephone numbers, home and business addresses, event attendance, details of donations to the University, and other biographical information pertaining to University fundraising and alumni engagement activities".

When did it happen?

The breach date in the public record is November 18, 2025. The record was added to the catalogue on November 3, 2026 and last updated there on November 3, 2026.

What information was reported as exposed?

• Charitable donations
• Citizenship statuses
• Dates of birth
• Education levels
• Email addresses
• Employers
• Ethnicities
• Family members' names
• Genders
• Job titles
• Marital statuses
• Names
• Occupations
• Phone numbers
• Physical addresses
• Places of birth
• Salutations
• Social media profiles

These are incident-level categories. The record does not prove that every category was exposed for every affected person.

Who may be affected?

This record may be relevant to people who had an account or other relationship with Harvard or used harvard.edu around November 18, 2025. A catalogue entry does not establish that every customer was affected or that every listed data category applied to each person. Compare the record with an official notice addressed to you.

What should you do?

Choose actions that match the information involved. If you find signs that someone is using your identity, the Federal Trade Commission provides a personal recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov.