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piZap data breach

From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the December 2017 breach of piZap. For every breach, see Breaches.

The piZap data breach exposed 41,817,893 accounts from pizap.com in December 2017. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, names and email addresses and 4 more kinds of data.[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 16 Jul 2019, 19 months later. It is the 51st largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

piZap’s breach included 8 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.
NamesMakes scam messages personal enough to believe.
Email addressesExpect scam emails that name the company to look genuine.
Social media profilesA way to reach you with scams.
GendersPersonal details that make scam messages more convincing.
Geographic locationsRoughly where you live.
Website activityPersonal details that make scam messages more convincing.

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, piZap among them, without showing the data.
  2. Change your piZap password.If the account still exists, sign in at piZap (pizap.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 piZap.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, 19 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:

  • Houzz, May 2018, 49 million accounts
  • Pluto TV, October 2018, 3.2 million accounts
  • ixigo, January 2019, 17 million accounts
  • Wattpad, June 2020, 269 million accounts
  • Wishbone (2020), January 2020, 9.7 million accounts
  • Liker, March 2021, 465,141 accounts

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

References

  1. ^ Troy Hunt. “piZap”, Have I Been Pwned, added 16 Jul 2019. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.