Pluto TV data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the October 2018 breach of Pluto TV. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Pluto TV data breach exposed 3,225,080 accounts from pluto.tv in October 2018. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, dates of birth and names and 5 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 5 Dec 2020, 2 years later. It is the 255th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Pluto TV’s breach included 9 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. |
| Dates of birth | Used to prove who you are to banks and phone companies. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| Social media profiles | A way to reach you with scams. |
| Device information | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Genders | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| 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, Pluto TV among them, without showing the data.
- Change your Pluto TV password.If the account still exists, sign in at Pluto TV (pluto.tv) 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 Pluto TV.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, 2 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:
- Wattpad, June 2020, 269 million accounts
- Wishbone (2020), January 2020, 9.7 million accounts
- Liker, March 2021, 465,141 accounts
- Houzz, May 2018, 49 million accounts
- 500px, July 2018, 15 million accounts
- ixigo, January 2019, 17 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “Pluto TV”, Have I Been Pwned, added 5 Dec 2020. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- pluto.tv, Pluto TV’s website