Princeton University phishing incident exposes alumni and donor data
On 10 November 2025, phishing targeting a member of staff at Princeton University led to a breach of its advancement and alumni database. Names, email addresses, phone numbers and addresses of alumni, donors, students, academic and other staff and others were exposed. The university disclosed the breach, and a class action alleging a failure to protect personal information was subsequently filed.
Key facts
- Affected organisation
- Princeton University
- Incident type
- Data breach
- Occurred / detected
- 2025-11-10
- Scale of damage
- Names, email addresses, phone numbers and addresses of alumni, donors, students, academic and other staff and others exposed
- Cause / method
- Breach of the advancement and alumni database via phishing targeting a member of staff
- Location
- United States
If your data was exposed
Exposed dataNamePhone numberEmailAddress
- Don’t tap links in texts, calls or emails that mention this incident and offer compensation, refunds or breach checks. Check directly on the organisation’s official website or app.
Timeline
- The advancement and alumni database was breached through phishing targeting a member of staff.
- Princeton University informed students of the data breach.
- A class action was filed alleging that Princeton University had failed to protect sensitive information.
10 related reports
- Princeton University Informs Students of Data Breach
- Princeton University hit by major cyberattack; student, donor and alumni data stolen
- Princeton University discloses data breach affecting donors, alumni
- Princeton Database Breached in Targeted Phishing Incident
- Princeton University Data Breach Impacts Alumni, Students, Employees
- Harvard University database hacked; alumni, donors, students, and faculty records exposed
- Harvard cyberattack data breach exposes alumni, donors, students and faculty records? Here's complete trut
- Harvard University discloses data breach affecting alumni, donors
- Class-action lawsuit claims Princeton failed to protect sensitive data in major security breach
- OpenAI, Mixpanel Face Class Action Lawsuit Over Data Breach (1)
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The summary and key facts are written by AI from related reports and may contain errors. Check the original articles and the organisation’s official statements for accurate details.