START data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the June 2021 breach of START. For every breach, see Breaches.
The START data breach exposed 7,455,386 accounts from start.film in June 2021. The data taken includes passwords, names, email addresses and geographic locations.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 30 Aug 2022, 15 months later. It is the 153rd largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
START’s breach included 4 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. |
| Geographic locations | Roughly where you live. |
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, START among them, without showing the data.
- Change your START password.If the account still exists, sign in at START (start.film) 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 START.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, 15 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:
- ParkMobile, March 2021, 21 million accounts
- Descomplica, March 2021, 4.8 million accounts
- Gemplex, February 2021, 4.6 million accounts
- FlexBooker, December 2021, 3.8 million accounts
- SlideTeam, April 2021, 1.5 million accounts
- Ducks Unlimited, January 2021, 1.3 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
- start.film, START’s website