Bookmate data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the July 2018 breach of Bookmate. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Bookmate data breach exposed 3,830,916 accounts from bookmate.com in July 2018. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, dates of birth and names and 3 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 22 Mar 2019, 8 months later. It is the 236th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Bookmate’s breach included 7 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. |
| Dates of birth | Used to prove who you are to banks and phone companies. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| Genders | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Geographic locations | Roughly where you live. |
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, Bookmate among them, without showing the data.
- Change your Bookmate password.If the account still exists, sign in at Bookmate (bookmate.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 Bookmate.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, 8 months later.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- 500px, July 2018, 15 million accounts
- Pluto TV, October 2018, 3.2 million accounts
- TaiLieu, November 2019, 7.3 million accounts
- AlpineReplay, August 2019, 898,681 accounts
- Wattpad, June 2020, 269 million accounts
- Wishbone (2020), January 2020, 9.7 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “Bookmate”, Have I Been Pwned, added 22 Mar 2019. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- bookmate.com, Bookmate’s website