Breach date: 2020-12-24. Added to this index: 2021-06-20. Accounts affected: about 547K. Domain: universityofcalifornia.edu.
What happened
In December 2020, the University of California suffered a data breach due to vulnerability in in a third-party provider, Accellion. The breach exposed extensive personal data on both students and staff including 547 thousand unique email addresses, names, dates of birth, genders, social security numbers, ethnicities and other academic related data attributes. Further analysis is available in Exploring the Impact of the UC Data Breach. The data was provided to HIBP courtesy of Cyril Gorlla.
Breach data sourced from Have I Been Pwned, used under CC BY 4.0. Additional breach metadata provided by XposedOrNot. DataExposed is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.
What was exposed
Dates of birth: Your full birth date, day, month and year, collected at signup for age checks, identity verification, insurance quotes, birthday offers or government services.
Education levels: Your highest qualification, such as high school, a trade certificate, a bachelor's degree or a postgraduate degree, collected by job sites, surveys, dating apps and marketing databases.
Email addresses: The email address you used to register or log in. It is the most common field in breaches because it doubles as your username on most sites.
Ethnicities: Your recorded ethnic or racial background, often from workplace diversity surveys, health records, government forms, genetic testing services, dating apps and research studies.
Genders: The gender or sex recorded on your profile, usually picked from a list at signup, sometimes with a title such as Mr or Ms or a gender identity option beyond male and female.
Job titles: Your role or position, such as accounts payable officer, nurse or IT administrator, recorded by professional networks, business software, event registrations and marketing lists.
Names: Your first name, surname and sometimes middle name or initials, as you gave them when you signed up. It appears in almost every breach because nearly every account asks for it.
Phone numbers: Your mobile or landline number, collected at signup for contact, delivery updates, marketing and two-factor codes.
Physical addresses: Your residential, postal, billing or delivery address, stored by retailers, utilities, banks, government services and almost any company that sends you something.
Social security numbers: The nine digit number the US Social Security Administration issues for work, tax and benefits, which lenders, employers, insurers and health providers use as the main key to your identity.
What to do now
Check whether your own address is in this dataset with the free email breach check.
Review the accounts connected to this service and turn on two-factor authentication.
Turn on two-factor authentication on your email account first, because it is the reset path for everything else.
Treat calls and messages that quote real details about you as hostile until you verify them another way.
Frequently asked questions
What data was leaked in the University of California breach?
The University of California breach exposed Dates of birth, Education levels, Email addresses, Ethnicities, Genders, Job titles, Names, Phone numbers, Physical addresses, Social security numbers. About 547K accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the University of California breach?
Run the free email breach check with the address you used on that service. It will tell you whether your address appears in this dataset.
What should I do about the University of California breach?
Treat any message that quotes details from this breach as suspicious, turn on two-factor authentication, and consider removing your details from people-search sites if your address or phone was included.