VK data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the January 2012 breach of VK. For every breach, see Breaches.
The VK data breach exposed 93,338,602 accounts from vk.com in January 2012. The data taken includes passwords, names, email addresses and phone numbers.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 9 Jun 2016, 4 years later. It is the 24th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
VK’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. |
| Phone numbers | Expect scam texts and calls, and a higher risk of someone moving your number to their SIM. |
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, VK among them, without showing the data.
- Change your VK password.If the account still exists, sign in at VK (vk.com) 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 VK.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
- Put a PIN on your phone account.Ask your mobile provider for a port-out PIN, so no one can move your number to their SIM.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 4 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:
- Evite, August 2013, 101 million accounts
- Vodafone, November 2013, 56,021 accounts
- Sony, June 2011, 37,103 accounts
- Domino's, June 2014, 648,231 accounts
- ClearVoice Surveys, August 2015, 15 million accounts
- JobStreet, March 2012, 3.9 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
- vk.com, VK’s website