Data breach

Exactis data breach

131,577,763 accounts · breached June 1, 2018

What happened

In June 2018, the marketing firm Exactis inadvertently publicly leaked 340 million records of personal data. Security researcher Vinny Troia of Night Lion Security discovered the leak contained multiple terabytes of personal information spread across hundreds of separate fields including addresses, phone numbers, family structures and extensive profiling data. The data was collected as part of Exactis' service as a "compiler and aggregator of premium business & consumer data" which they then sell for profiling and marketing purposes. A small subset of the exposed fields were provided to Have I Been Pwned and contained 132 million unique email addresses.

Description by Have I Been Pwned

What data leaked

  • Credit status information
  • Dates of birth
  • Education levels
  • Email addresses
  • Ethnicities
  • Family structure
  • Financial investments
  • Genders
  • Home ownership statuses
  • Income levels
  • IP addresses
  • Marital statuses
  • Names
  • Net worths
  • Occupations
  • Personal interests
  • Phone numbers
  • Physical addresses
  • Religions
  • Spoken languages

What to do if you had an account

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

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