Home Chef data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the February 2020 breach of Home Chef. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Home Chef data breach exposed 8,815,692 accounts from homechef.com in February 2020. The data taken includes passwords, partial credit card data, names and email addresses and 3 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 13 Nov 2020, 9 months later. It is the 139th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Home Chef’s breach included 7 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. |
| Partial credit card data | Not enough to spend, but enough to make a fake call from your bank convincing. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| Phone numbers | Expect scam texts and calls, and a higher risk of someone moving your number to their SIM. |
| Geographic locations | Roughly where you live. |
| IP addresses | Roughly where you were when you used the service. |
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, Home Chef among them, without showing the data.
- Change your Home Chef password.If the account still exists, sign in at Home Chef (homechef.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.
- Distrust messages that mention Home Chef.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
- 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.
- Watch your statements.Report anything you don’t recognise to your bank, and ask for a new card if full card numbers leaked.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 9 months later.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- Swvl, June 2020, 4.2 million accounts
- Bonobos, August 2020, 2.8 million accounts
- Lazada RedMart, July 2020, 1.1 million accounts
- EatStreet, May 2019, 6.4 million accounts
- FlexBooker, December 2021, 3.8 million accounts
- Imavex, August 2021, 878,209 accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “Home Chef”, Have I Been Pwned, added 13 Nov 2020. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- homechef.com, Home Chef’s website