Data breach
Ashley Madison data breach
30,811,934 accounts · breached July 19, 2015
Have I Been Pwned treats this breach as sensitive: it does not reveal publicly whether a particular address is in it. Only the owner of an address can check, after verifying it.
What happened
In July 2015, the infidelity website Ashley Madison suffered a serious data breach. The attackers threatened Ashley Madison with the full disclosure of the breach unless the service was shut down. One month later, the database was dumped including more than 30M unique email addresses. This breach has been classed as "sensitive" and is not publicly searchable, although individuals may discover if they've been impacted by registering for notifications. Read about this approach in detail.
What data leaked
- Dates of birth
- Email addresses
- Ethnicities
- Genders
- Names
- Passwords
- Payment histories
- Phone numbers
- Physical addresses
- Security questions and answers
- Sexual orientations
- Usernames
- Website activity
What to do if you had an account
- Change the password. Change your password on this service. If you used the same password anywhere else, change it there too: attackers try leaked email and password pairs on other sites automatically. A password manager makes one unique password per site practical.
- Turn on two-step sign-in. Enable two-factor authentication where the service offers it, preferably with an authenticator app or a passkey. A leaked password alone is then not enough to get in.
- Expect targeted phishing. Leaked contact details are used to write convincing fake messages that mention the breached company or your real name. Do not click links in unexpected emails or texts about this account; go to the site by typing its address.
- Watch for scam calls and SIM swaps. Be suspicious of calls and texts that claim to be from your bank or a courier. Ask your mobile operator for a port-out or SIM-change PIN if it offers one.
- Check your bank statements. Review recent card and account transactions and report anything you do not recognise. If full card numbers were exposed, ask your bank to replace the card.
- Guard against identity fraud. Identity documents and dates of birth cannot be changed like a password. Consider a credit freeze or fraud alert where your country offers one, and be wary of anyone who 'verifies' you using those details.
- Sensitive personal data. This breach includes sensitive categories of personal data. Scammers and blackmailers use such details to pressure people. Do not pay, and report extortion attempts to the police.
Check your email at haveibeenpwned.com
We do not run email lookups ourselves. The search is done on haveibeenpwned.com, the service this list comes from.