Have I Been Pwned added a November 2025 data breach from Harvard University involving 850,537 accounts. The incident has been linked to a ShinyHunters extortion attempt.
The Harvard Incident
In November 2025, Harvard University suffered a data breach later linked to a ShinyHunters pay or leak extortion attempt, according to Have I Been Pwned. The breach was added to the platform on November 3, 2026, impacting 850,537 accounts.
The data contained 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.
Compromised Data
Personal information impacted in the breach includes charitable donations, citizenship statuses, dates of birth, education levels, email addresses, employers, ethnicities, and family members' names.
Additional compromised details include genders, job titles, marital statuses, names, occupations, phone numbers, physical addresses, places of birth, salutations, and social media profiles.
What to do
- If you haven’t already changed the password affected by this breach, do so immediately on every account where it was used.
- Wherever 2FA is supported, add an extra layer of security to your account.
Key facts and where they come from
- Harvard University suffered a data breach in November 2025.
In November 2025, Harvard University suffered a data breach
- The breach affected 850,537 accounts.
Harvard – 850,537 breached accounts
- The incident was linked to a ShinyHunters extortion attempt.
linked to a ShinyHunters "pay or leak" extortion attempt.
