Last.fm data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the March 2012 breach of Last.fm. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Last.fm data breach exposed 37,217,682 accounts from last.fm in March 2012. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, email addresses and website activity.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 20 Sep 2016, 5 years later. It is the 56th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Last.fm’s breach included 4 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. |
| Usernames | Half of a login. With a reused password, it opens other accounts. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| 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, Last.fm among them, without showing the data.
- Change your Last.fm password.If the account still exists, sign in at Last.fm (last.fm) 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 Last.fm.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, 5 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:
- Disqus, July 2012, 18 million accounts
- BookCrossing, November 2012, 1.6 million accounts
- League of Legends, June 2012, 339,487 accounts
- Adobe, October 2013, 152 million accounts
- iMesh, September 2013, 49 million accounts
- Neopets, May 2013, 27 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
- last.fm, Last.fm’s website