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Fotolog data breach

From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the December 2018 breach of Fotolog. For every breach, see Breaches.

The Fotolog data breach exposed 16,717,854 accounts from fotolog.com in December 2018. The data taken includes passwords, usernames and email addresses.[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 15 Jun 2021, 3 years later. It is the 104th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

Fotolog’s breach included 3 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.

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, Fotolog among them, without showing the data.
  2. Change your Fotolog password.If the account still exists, sign in at Fotolog (fotolog.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 Fotolog.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.

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:

  • Dubsmash, December 2018, 162 million accounts
  • MyFitnessPal, February 2018, 144 million accounts
  • Houzz, May 2018, 49 million accounts
  • Chegg, April 2018, 40 million accounts
  • Poshmark, May 2018, 36 million accounts
  • EyeEm, February 2018, 20 million accounts

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

References

  1. ^ Troy Hunt. “Fotolog”, Have I Been Pwned, added 15 Jun 2021. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.