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GeniusU data breach

From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the October 2020 breach of GeniusU. For every breach, see Breaches.

The GeniusU data breach exposed 1,301,460 accounts from geniusu.com in October 2020. The data taken includes passwords, names, email addresses and social media profiles and 2 more kinds of data.[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 8 Jan 2021, 3 months later. It is the 373rd largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

GeniusU’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.
NamesMakes scam messages personal enough to believe.
Email addressesExpect scam emails that name the company to look genuine.
Social media profilesA way to reach you with scams.
GendersPersonal details that make scam messages more convincing.
IP addressesRoughly where you were when you used the service.

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, GeniusU among them, without showing the data.
  2. Change your GeniusU password.If the account still exists, sign in at GeniusU (geniusu.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 GeniusU.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 months later.
  • : the entry was last updated.

Similar breaches

Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:

  • Wattpad, June 2020, 269 million accounts
  • Mathway, January 2020, 26 million accounts
  • Wishbone (2020), January 2020, 9.7 million accounts
  • Chatbooks, March 2020, 2.5 million accounts
  • Pixlr, October 2020, 1.9 million accounts
  • Ulmon, January 2020, 777,769 accounts

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

References

  1. ^ Troy Hunt. “GeniusU”, Have I Been Pwned, added 8 Jan 2021. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.