gPotato data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the July 2007 breach of gPotato. For every breach, see Breaches.
The gPotato data breach exposed 2,136,520 accounts from gpotato.com in July 2007. The data taken includes passwords, security questions and answers, usernames and dates of birth and 6 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 24 Sep 2016, 9 years later. It is the 308th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
gPotato’s breach included 10 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. |
| Security questions and answers | The answers reset passwords elsewhere, and you can’t change your mother’s maiden name. |
| Usernames | Half of a login. With a reused password, it opens other accounts. |
| 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. |
| Genders | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| IP addresses | Roughly where you were when you used the service. |
| Website activity | 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, gPotato among them, without showing the data.
- Change your gPotato password.If the account still exists, sign in at gPotato (gpotato.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.
- Change your security answers.Wherever you used the same ones. They don’t have to be true: treat them like extra passwords.
- Distrust messages that mention gPotato.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
- 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, 9 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
- JobStreet, March 2012, 3.9 million accounts
- Yam, June 2013, 13 million accounts
- VNG, May 2015, 25 million accounts
- ClixSense, September 2016, 2.4 million accounts
- Animal Jam, October 2020, 7.1 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
- gpotato.com, gPotato’s website