University of Nottingham data breach: 454K accounts exposed
Severity: medium · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2026-06-10
In June 2026, the University of Nottingham was the target of a cyber attack, later linked to a ShinyHunters "pay or leak" extortion campaign. Tens of gigabytes of data were subsequently published online and included 455k unique email addresses along with extensive personal information including names, addresses, phone numbers, ethnicities, disabilities, passport numbers and information relating to academic enrolments and fee payments. In a post about the incident, the university advised that the breach affected both "current students, and alumni". Exposed data: academic records, citizenship statuses, dates of birth, disabilities, email addresses, ethnicities, genders, ip addresses, names, passport numbers, phone numbers, physical addresses, purchases, salutations, usernames. The breach dates from Jun 9, 2026; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Jun 10, 2026.
What to do
- If you had a University of Nottingham 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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