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XKCD data breach

From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the July 2019 breach of XKCD. For every breach, see Breaches.

The XKCD data breach exposed 561,991 accounts from xkcd.com in July 2019. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, email addresses and IP addresses.[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 1 Sep 2019, 2 months later. It is the 469th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

XKCD’s breach included 4 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:

DataWhat it’s used for
PasswordsCriminals try leaked passwords on email, banking and shopping sites, because people reuse them.
UsernamesHalf of a login. With a reused password, it opens other accounts.
Email addressesExpect scam emails that name the company to look genuine.
IP addressesRoughly where you were when you used the service.

What to do

  1. Check whether you’re in it.Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned. It tells you which breaches it appears in, XKCD among them, without showing the data.
  2. Change your XKCD password.If the account still exists, sign in at XKCD (xkcd.com) and change it.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Distrust messages that mention XKCD.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 months later.

Similar breaches

Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:

  • Zynga, September 2019, 173 million accounts
  • Canva, May 2019, 137 million accounts
  • ixigo, January 2019, 17 million accounts
  • Lumin PDF, April 2019, 15 million accounts
  • Armor Games, January 2019, 11 million accounts
  • TaiLieu, November 2019, 7.3 million accounts

See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.

References

  1. ^ Troy Hunt. “XKCD”, Have I Been Pwned, added 1 Sep 2019. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.