Capital Economics data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the December 2020 breach of Capital Economics. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Capital Economics data breach exposed 263,829 accounts from capitaleconomics.com in December 2020. The data taken includes names, physical addresses, email addresses and phone numbers and 2 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 4 Jul 2022, 19 months later. It is the 531st largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Capital Economics’s breach included 6 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Physical addresses | Used to prove who you are, and for scam letters and parcels. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| Phone numbers | Expect scam texts and calls, and a higher risk of someone moving your number to their SIM. |
| Employers | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Job titles | 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, Capital Economics among them, without showing the data.
- Distrust messages that mention Capital Economics.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
- Put a PIN on your phone account.Ask your mobile provider for a port-out PIN, so no one can move your number to their SIM.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 19 months later.
Breaches often stay hidden for a long time. Until it came out, people in it had no reason to change anything.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- Lead Hunter, March 2020, 69 million accounts
- Straffic, February 2020, 49 million accounts
- bigbasket, October 2020, 25 million accounts
- Covve, February 2020, 23 million accounts
- 123RF, March 2020, 8.7 million accounts
- Minted, May 2020, 4.4 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “Capital Economics”, Have I Been Pwned, added 4 Jul 2022. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- capitaleconomics.com, Capital Economics’s website