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Elance data breach

From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the January 2009 breach of Elance. For every breach, see Breaches.

The Elance data breach exposed 1,291,178 accounts from elance.com in January 2009. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, 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 18 Feb 2017, 8 years later. It is the 376th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

Elance’s breach included 6 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:

DataWhat it’s used for
PasswordsCriminals try leaked passwords on email, banking and shopping sites, because people reuse them.
UsernamesHalf of a login. With a reused password, it opens other accounts.
Email addressesExpect scam emails that name the company to look genuine.
Phone numbersExpect scam texts and calls, and a higher risk of someone moving your number to their SIM.
EmployersPersonal details that make scam messages more convincing.
Geographic locationsRoughly where you live.

What to do

  1. Check whether you’re in it.Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned. It tells you which breaches it appears in, Elance among them, without showing the data.
  2. Change your Elance password.If the account still exists, sign in at Elance (elance.com) and change it.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Distrust messages that mention Elance.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
  6. 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, 8 years 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:

  • Sony, June 2011, 37,103 accounts
  • Vodafone, November 2013, 56,021 accounts
  • JobStreet, March 2012, 3.9 million accounts
  • JD, January 2013, 77 million accounts
  • Yam, June 2013, 13 million accounts
  • Bell (2017 breach), May 2017, 2.2 million accounts

See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.

References

  1. ^ Troy Hunt. “Elance”, Have I Been Pwned, added 18 Feb 2017. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.