The Botting Network data breach: 96K accounts exposed
Severity: high · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2025-12-18
In August 2012, the forum for making money with botting "The Botting Network" suffered a data breach that exposed 96k user records. The now defunct vBulletin forum leaked 96k email addresses, usernames, dates of birth and salted MD5 password hashes. Exposed data: dates of birth, email addresses, passwords, usernames. The breach dates from Aug 12, 2012; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Dec 18, 2025.
What to do
- If you had a The Botting Network 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
All live incidents on Threat Watch