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Zynga data breach

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

The Zynga data breach exposed 172,869,660 accounts from zynga.com in September 2019. The data taken includes passwords, usernames, email addresses and phone numbers.[1]

Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 19 Dec 2019, 4 months later. It is the 11th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.

What was exposed

Zynga’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.
Phone numbersExpect scam texts and calls, and a higher risk of someone moving your number to their SIM.

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, Zynga among them, without showing the data.
  2. Change your Zynga password.If the account still exists, sign in at Zynga (zynga.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 Zynga.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
  6. 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 months later.
  • : the entry was last updated.

Similar breaches

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

  • ixigo, January 2019, 17 million accounts
  • TaiLieu, November 2019, 7.3 million accounts
  • Dubsmash, December 2018, 162 million accounts
  • Chegg, April 2018, 40 million accounts
  • Wishbone (2020), January 2020, 9.7 million accounts
  • 123RF, March 2020, 8.7 million accounts

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

References

  1. ^ Troy Hunt. “Zynga”, Have I Been Pwned, added 19 Dec 2019. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.