Tianya data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the December 2011 breach of Tianya. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Tianya data breach exposed 29,020,808 accounts from tianya.cn in December 2011. The data taken includes usernames, names and email addresses.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 30 Jun 2016, 5 years later. It is the 63rd largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Tianya’s breach included 3 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| Usernames | Half of a login. With a reused password, it opens other accounts. |
| 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, Tianya among them, without showing the data.
- Turn on two-step sign-in.On Tianya (tianya.cn) and your email, so leaked sign-in details aren’t enough on their own.
- Distrust messages that mention Tianya.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, 5 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:
- Sony, June 2011, 37,103 accounts
- BookCrossing, November 2012, 1.6 million accounts
- Neopets, May 2013, 27 million accounts
- Vodafone, November 2013, 56,021 accounts
- JobStreet, March 2012, 3.9 million accounts
- Lookbook, August 2012, 1.1 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
- tianya.cn, Tianya’s website