Sephora data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the January 2017 breach of Sephora. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Sephora data breach exposed 780,073 accounts from sephora.com.au in January 2017. The data taken includes dates of birth, names, email addresses and ethnicities and 2 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 6 Oct 2019, 3 years later. It is the 445th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Sephora’s breach included 6 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| Ethnicities | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Genders | Personal details that make scam messages more convincing. |
| Physical attributes | 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, Sephora among them, without showing the data.
- Distrust messages that mention Sephora.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
- Expect the data to resurface.Breach data is sold and combined with other leaks for years. Stay wary of messages that know a little too much about you.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 3 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:
- ai.type, December 2017, 21 million accounts
- Exactis, June 2018, 132 million accounts
- Modern Business Solutions, October 2016, 59 million accounts
- ShareThis, July 2018, 41 million accounts
- HauteLook, August 2018, 29 million accounts
- Animoto, July 2018, 22 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
- sephora.com.au, Sephora’s website