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Gravatar data breach

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

The Gravatar data breach exposed 113,990,759 accounts from gravatar.com in October 2020. The data taken includes usernames, names and email addresses.[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 5 Dec 2021, 14 months later. It is the 21st largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

Gravatar’s breach included 3 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:

DataWhat it’s used for
UsernamesHalf of a login. With a reused password, it opens other accounts.
NamesMakes scam messages personal enough to believe.
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, Gravatar among them, without showing the data.
  2. Turn on two-step sign-in.On Gravatar (gravatar.com) and your email, so leaked sign-in details aren’t enough on their own.
  3. Distrust messages that mention Gravatar.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, 14 months later.
  • : the entry was last updated.

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. “Gravatar”, Have I Been Pwned, added 5 Dec 2021. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.