Neopets data breach: 26.9M accounts exposed
Severity: high · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2016-07-07
In May 2016, a set of breached data originating from the virtual pet website "Neopets" was found being traded online. Allegedly hacked "several years earlier", the data contains sensitive personal information including birthdates, genders and names as well as almost 27 million unique email addresses. Passwords were stored in plain text and IP addresses were also present in the breach. Exposed data: dates of birth, email addresses, genders, geographic locations, ip addresses, names, passwords, usernames. The breach dates from May 5, 2013; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Jul 7, 2016.
What to do
- If you had a Neopets 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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