Houston City College data breach: 831K accounts exposed
Severity: medium · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2026-07-28
In June 2026, Houston City College was the target of a ShinyHunters "pay or leak" extortion campaign. Data allegedly obtained from the college was later published publicly and included 832k unique email addresses along with names, addresses, phone numbers, academic records, and other personal information relating to both current students and alumni. Exposed data: academic records, citizenship statuses, dates of birth, email addresses, genders, names, phone numbers, physical addresses. The breach dates from Jun 16, 2026; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Jul 28, 2026.
What to do
- If you had a Houston City College account, change its password and the password of any other account that reused it.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication wherever it is offered.
- Check whether your addresses are in this breach at https://haveibeenpwned.com.
- Expect targeted phishing that quotes the leaked details; verify any unexpected contact out of band.
Sources
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