Exactis data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the June 2018 breach of Exactis. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Exactis data breach exposed 131,577,763 accounts from exactis.com in June 2018. The data taken includes credit status information, income levels, dates of birth and names and 16 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 25 Jul 2018, 2 months later. It is the 17th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Exactis’s breach included 20 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| Credit status information | Useful for payment fraud. |
| Income levels | Useful for payment fraud. |
| Dates of birth | Used to prove who you are to banks and phone companies. |
| 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. |
| Religions | Private, and now in someone else’s hands. |
| Education levels | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Ethnicities | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Family structure | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Financial investments | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Genders | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Home ownership statuses | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| IP addresses | Roughly where you were when you used the service. |
| Marital statuses | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Net worths | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Occupations | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Personal interests | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Spoken languages | 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, Exactis among them, without showing the data.
- Distrust messages that mention Exactis.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.
- Freeze your credit.In the US, free at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. In Australia, ask Equifax, Experian and illion for a ban. No one can open credit in your name while it’s on.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 2 months later.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, December 2021, 5.5 million accounts
- Prosper, September 2025, 18 million accounts
- University of Pennsylvania, October 2025, 623,750 accounts
- Assurance Retraite, September 2024, 70,372 accounts
- Fashion Nexus, July 2018, 1.3 million accounts
- Verifications.io, February 2019, 763 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- exactis.com, Exactis’s website