HackingEducationEducationVulnerability ExploitSupply Chain (3P Vendor)TargetedIdentity (basic)LowContained

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY

bd_8ec9e64fd5c11cb2 · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

Low

Discovered

Aug 24, 2025

Filed

Oct 31, 2025

To disclose

10 weeks

Affected

58state residents only

Confidence

66%

Full breach record for NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY →17 incidents on file

Northeastern University notified consumers of a data breach where an unauthorized third party exploited a vulnerability in Salesloft Drift to access the Salesforce environment. The incident occurred between August 12 and 17, 2025. Personal information (names and data elements) was accessed; no credentials, SSNs, or financial data were compromised. 58 Rhode Island residents were identified as affected. Northeastern terminated access, engaged forensic analysts, and is evaluating security enhancements.

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Vermont clock✗ VT AG >45 bday10 weeks discovery → filing

⚠ unattributedNo provenance was recorded for this discovery date and it matches no other date on the record. It may be correct, but it is not independently grounded.

Incident timeline

undetected · 12 days

discovery → filing · 10 weeks / 68 days

Aug 12, 2025

Begins

Aug 24, 2025

Discovered

Oct 31, 2025

Filed

vs. sector median

+1 wks slower

Tracked as a single-filing incident — the only disclosure on record for this event so far.Confirmed58 affectedView incident

Name: NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
norm: northeastern university

Name: NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
norm: northeastern university
Industry: Educationllm

Discovered: Aug 24, 2025
Breach occurred: Aug 12, 2025 – Aug 17, 2025
Undetected for: 12 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: —
Affected individuals: 58state-resident count only
Data types: Identity (basic)
Attack vector: Third-Party / Supply Chain
MITRE ATT&CK: T1195 Supply Chain CompromiseT1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application
Threat actor: External
Initial access: exploit_public_facing

During the incident: Terminated access to Salesloft Drift
Launched an investigation to assess the scope of the incident
Engaged a data analytics firm to help identify any impacted personal information
Disabled all access from our environment to the Salesloft Drift application
Revoked related access tokens
Blocked the IP addresses associated with the unauthorized activity
Changes made: Evaluating additional security enhancements to our Salesforce environment
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 10 weeks(68 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: VT AG >45 bday
Discovery-date grounding: unattributedNo provenance was recorded for this discovery date and it matches no other date on the record. It may be correct, but it is not independently grounded.

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

Evidence ladder

Leak-site claim

Attacker assertion only. Establishes: claim date, group, alleged victim.

Press / market report

Unlocks: incident narrative, operational impact. Still no compliance clock.

State AG / regulator filingThis record

Unlocks: discovery date, data types, affected count, compliance clock.

SEC 8-K / victim statement

Unlocks: materiality, stated response, full audit trail. Ceiling removed.

Source URL: https://ago.vermont.gov/document/2025-10-31-northeastern-university-data-breach-notice-consumers
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: Oct 31, 2025
Raw hash: c0cbfdb5424c419370adfe84d1781a87f6d8f88097d83d9d4b5bf7987d2f7274

Reporting entityNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY

Victim entityNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY

Incidentdiscovered Aug 24, 2025

Stated responseTerminated access to Salesloft Drift

ComplianceVT AG >45 bday

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenanceago.vermont.gov