Army Force Online data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the May 2016 breach of Army Force Online. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Army Force Online data breach exposed 1,531,235 accounts from armyforceonline.com in May 2016. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, names and email addresses and 4 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 10 Nov 2016, 6 months later. It is the 343rd largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Army Force Online’s breach included 8 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| Passwords | Criminals try leaked passwords on email, banking and shopping sites, because people reuse them. |
| Usernames | Half of a login. With a reused password, it opens other accounts. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| Avatars | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Geographic locations | Roughly where you live. |
| IP addresses | Roughly where you were when you used the service. |
| Website activity | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
What to do
- Check whether you’re in it.Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned. It tells you which breaches it appears in, Army Force Online among them, without showing the data.
- Change your Army Force Online password.If the account still exists, sign in at Army Force Online (armyforceonline.com) and change it.
- Change it anywhere you used the same one.Start with your email, then banking and shopping. Leaked passwords are tried on other sites automatically, within days.
- Use a password manager and two-step sign-in.A different password for every site means one breach can’t open the rest. Two-step sign-in stops a leaked password working on its own.
- Distrust messages that mention Army Force Online.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 6 months later.
- : the entry was last updated.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- StreetEasy, June 2016, 988,230 accounts
- Bell (2017 breach), May 2017, 2.2 million accounts
- Dubsmash, December 2018, 162 million accounts
- Houzz, May 2018, 49 million accounts
- Chegg, April 2018, 40 million accounts
- Poshmark, May 2018, 36 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “Army Force Online”, Have I Been Pwned, added 10 Nov 2016. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- armyforceonline.com, Army Force Online’s website