XKCD data breach: 561K accounts exposed
Severity: high · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2019-09-01
In July 2019, the forum for webcomic XKCD suffered a data breach that impacted 562k subscribers. The breached phpBB forum leaked usernames, email and IP addresses and passwords stored in MD5 phpBB3 format. The data was provided to HIBP by white hat security researcher and data analyst Adam Davies. Exposed data: email addresses, ip addresses, passwords, usernames. The breach dates from Jul 1, 2019; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Sep 1, 2019.
What to do
- If you had a XKCD 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
