Ancestry data breach: 297K accounts exposed
Severity: high · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2017-12-24
In November 2015, an Ancestry service known as RootsWeb suffered a data breach. The breach was not discovered until late 2017 when a file containing almost 300k email addresses and plain text passwords was identified. Exposed data: email addresses, passwords. The breach dates from Nov 7, 2015; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Dec 24, 2017.
What to do
- If you had a Ancestry 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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