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Factual data breach

From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the March 2017 breach of Factual. For every breach, see Breaches.

The Factual data breach exposed 2,461,696 accounts from factual.com in March 2017. The data taken includes physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and employers.[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 24 Dec 2019, 3 years later. It is the 289th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

Factual’s breach included 4 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:

DataWhat it’s used for
Physical addressesUsed to prove who you are, and for scam letters and parcels.
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.

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, Factual among them, without showing the data.
  2. Distrust messages that mention Factual.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
  3. 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, 3 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:

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

References

  1. ^ Troy Hunt. “Factual”, Have I Been Pwned, added 24 Dec 2019. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.