Harvard Hack Hits 850k Alumni

ShinyHunters stole data from 850,000 Harvard alumni, donors, students, and families last year. The breach began with a simple phishing email that looked like official university correspondence. Once inside, attackers harvested login credentials and personal data, then sold it on dark-web forums. Harvard's IT team discovered the breach in early March, after noticing unusual traffic from an external server. The university is now tightening security protocols and offering free credit-monitoring to affected users. ShinyHunters, a notorious cyber-criminal group, has been linked to multiple high-profile social-engineering attacks worldwide. Their latest operation underscores how easily institutional data can be compromised without robust email authentication. Harvard's response highlights the urgent need for widespread adoption of DMARC and MFA across all organizations.