Mashable data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the June 2020 breach of Mashable. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Mashable data breach exposed 1,414,677 accounts from mashable.com in June 2020. The data taken includes auth tokens, names, partial dates of birth and email addresses and 4 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 10 Nov 2020, 5 months later. It is the 358th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Mashable’s breach included 8 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| Auth tokens | A token can let someone into the account without the password at all. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Partial dates of birth | Helps someone pretend to be you. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| Social media profiles | A way to reach you with scams. |
| Genders | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| 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, Mashable among them, without showing the data.
- Turn on two-step sign-in.On Mashable (mashable.com) and your email, so leaked sign-in details aren’t enough on their own.
- Distrust messages that mention Mashable.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 months later.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- Wishbone (2020), January 2020, 9.7 million accounts
- ixigo, January 2019, 17 million accounts
- Liker, March 2021, 465,141 accounts
- Mangatoon, May 2022, 23 million accounts
- Fanpass, April 2022, 112,251 accounts
- Wattpad, June 2020, 269 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “Mashable”, Have I Been Pwned, added 10 Nov 2020. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- mashable.com, Mashable’s website