Princeton University Data Breach Impacts Alumni, Students, Employees

According to Princeton University, the data breach affected alumni, donors, faculty, students, parents and other members of its community after a November 10 phishing attack on an employee with ordinary access to the Advancement database. Hackers accessed names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers, as well as information on fundraising activities and donations, but no passwords, Social Security numbers or financial information were exposed, and no TigerNet or other passwords were compromised.

The threat actor was evicted from the compromised system within 24 hours, and Princeton notes it is still determining what information, if anything, was viewed. The university is investigating with outside experts and law enforcement, and says no other Princeton IT systems have been compromised. Princeton is notifying all potentially affected individuals with an email address stored in the database, while urging recipients to be wary of unusual messages claiming to come from the university.