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iPmart data breach

From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the July 2015 breach of iPmart. For every breach, see Breaches.

The iPmart data breach exposed 2,460,787 accounts from ipmart-forum.com in July 2015. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, dates of birth and email addresses.[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 23 Feb 2016, 8 months later. It is the 290th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

iPmart’s breach included 4 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.
Dates of birthUsed to prove who you are to banks and phone companies.
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, iPmart among them, without showing the data.
  2. Change your iPmart password.If the account still exists, sign in at iPmart (ipmart-forum.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 iPmart.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, 8 months later.

Similar breaches

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

  • Funimation, July 2016, 2.5 million accounts
  • Malwarebytes, November 2014, 111,623 accounts
  • Neopets, May 2013, 27 million accounts
  • VNG, May 2015, 25 million accounts
  • 500px, July 2018, 15 million accounts
  • QuinStreet, December 2015, 4.9 million accounts

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

References

  1. ^ Troy Hunt. “iPmart”, Have I Been Pwned, added 23 Feb 2016. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.