Breach date: 2022-11-29. Added to this index: 2023-07-26. Accounts affected: about 212K. Domain: breached.vc.
What happened
In November 2022, the well-known hacking forum "BreachForums" was itself, breached. Later the following year, the operator of the website was arrested and the site seized by law enforcement agencies. The breach exposed 212k records including usernames, IP and email addresses, private messages between site members and passwords stored as argon2 hashes./a>.
Breach data sourced from Have I Been Pwned, used under CC BY 4.0. Additional breach metadata provided by XposedOrNot. DataExposed is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.
What was exposed
Email addresses: The email address you used to register or log in. It is the most common field in breaches because it doubles as your username on most sites.
IP addresses: The network addresses your devices used when you signed up, logged in or posted, recorded by almost every website in its access logs.
Passwords: The secret you use to sign in, stored by the breached service either in plain text, in a scrambled form called a hash, or encrypted. How it was stored decides how quickly it can be recovered.
Private messages: Direct messages, chats and inbox conversations on a platform, which can include photos, links, attachments, addresses, phone numbers and details you shared expecting only one person to read.
Usernames: The handle or login name you chose for an account, which may be public on forums, games and social platforms or used privately to sign in.
What to do now
Check whether your own address is in this dataset with the free email breach check.
Change the password on this service and every other site where you used the same password.
Turn on two-factor authentication on your email account first, because it is the reset path for everything else.
Treat calls and messages that quote real details about you as hostile until you verify them another way.
Frequently asked questions
What data was leaked in the BreachForums breach?
The BreachForums breach exposed Email addresses, IP addresses, Passwords, Private messages, Usernames. About 212K accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the BreachForums breach?
Run the free email breach check with the address you used on that service. It will tell you whether your address appears in this dataset.
What should I do about the BreachForums breach?
Change the password on that account and everywhere you reused it, then turn on two-factor authentication. Passwords from this breach are traded and tried automatically against other sites.