University of Pennsylvania data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the October 2025 breach of University of Pennsylvania. For every breach, see Breaches.
The University of Pennsylvania data breach exposed 623,750 accounts from upenn.edu in October 2025. The data taken includes income levels, dates of birth, names and physical addresses and 7 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 16 Feb 2026, 4 months later. It is the 460th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
University of Pennsylvania’s breach included 11 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| Income levels | Useful for payment fraud. |
| Dates of birth | Used to prove who you are to banks and phone companies. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Physical addresses | Used to prove who you are, and for scam letters and parcels. |
| Spouses names | Helps someone pretend to be you. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| Religions | Private, and now in someone else’s hands. |
| Charitable donations | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Genders | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Job titles | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Salutations | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
What to do
- Check whether you’re in it.Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned. It tells you which breaches it appears in, University of Pennsylvania among them, without showing the data.
- Distrust messages that mention University of Pennsylvania.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
- Freeze your credit.In the US, free at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. In Australia, ask Equifax, Experian and illion for a ban. No one can open credit in your name while it’s on.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 4 months later.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- Exactis, June 2018, 132 million accounts
- Prosper, September 2025, 18 million accounts
- Aman, April 2026, 215,563 accounts
- Assurance Retraite, September 2024, 70,372 accounts
- Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, December 2021, 5.5 million accounts
- Canadian Tire, October 2025, 38 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “University of Pennsylvania”, Have I Been Pwned, added 16 Feb 2026. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- upenn.edu, University of Pennsylvania’s website