Chatbooks data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the March 2020 breach of Chatbooks. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Chatbooks data breach exposed 2,520,441 accounts from chatbooks.com in March 2020. The data taken includes passwords, names, email addresses, phone numbers and social media profiles.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 29 Jul 2020, 4 months later. It is the 284th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Chatbooks’s breach included 5 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. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| 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. |
| Social media profiles | A way to reach you with scams. |
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, Chatbooks among them, without showing the data.
- Change your Chatbooks password.If the account still exists, sign in at Chatbooks (chatbooks.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 Chatbooks.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, 4 months later.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- Wishbone (2020), January 2020, 9.7 million accounts
- Ulmon, January 2020, 777,769 accounts
- ixigo, January 2019, 17 million accounts
- EatStreet, May 2019, 6.4 million accounts
- Liker, March 2021, 465,141 accounts
- Eatigo, October 2018, 2.8 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “Chatbooks”, Have I Been Pwned, added 29 Jul 2020. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- chatbooks.com, Chatbooks’s website