What Happened
Harvard University experienced a major data breach in November 2025, discovered on November 18, when an unauthorized party accessed its Alumni Affairs and Development systems via a phone-based phishing (vishing) attack, potentially compromising personal information of over 115,000 individuals including alumni, donors, students, faculty, staff, and their families. Exposed data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, home and business addresses, event attendance records, donation details, and biographical information related to fundraising, though Social Security numbers, passwords, payment cards, and financial accounts were generally not stored in the affected systems. The university immediately revoked access, engaged cybersecurity experts and law enforcement, and launched a public FAQ page, but could not initially confirm exactly what was accessed. In February 2026, the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility, published over 1 million records (including high-profile donor data like contributions from Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Bloomberg), and stated the universities refused ransom demands after breaches tied to phishing targeting SSO providers. A separate August 2025 incident involved hackers exploiting an Oracle vulnerability to download personal files, but it is distinct from the primary November event.
