Peatix data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the January 2019 breach of Peatix. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Peatix data breach exposed 4,227,907 accounts from peatix.com in January 2019. The data taken includes passwords, names and email addresses.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 6 Dec 2020, 23 months later. It is the 223rd largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Peatix’s breach included 3 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. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
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, Peatix among them, without showing the data.
- Change your Peatix password.If the account still exists, sign in at Peatix (peatix.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 Peatix.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, 23 months 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:
- Canva, May 2019, 137 million accounts
- CafePress, February 2019, 23 million accounts
- ixigo, January 2019, 17 million accounts
- Lumin PDF, April 2019, 15 million accounts
- Instant Checkmate, April 2019, 12 million accounts
- TaiLieu, November 2019, 7.3 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
- peatix.com, Peatix’s website