Data Enrichment Records data breach

Breach date: 2016-12-23. Added to this index: 2017-06-08. Accounts affected: about 8.2M. Domain: not listed.

What happened

In December 2016, more than 200 million "data enrichment profiles" were found for sale on the darknet. The seller claimed the data was sourced from Experian and whilst that claim was rejected by the company, the data itself was found to be legitimate suggesting it may have been sourced from other legitimate locations. In total, there were more than 8 million unique email addresses in the data which also contained a raft of other personal attributes including credit ratings, home ownership status, family structure and other fields described in the story linked to above. The email addresses alone were provided to HIBP.

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

  • Buying preferences: Marketing data about what you tend to buy: favourite brands, product categories, price range and how often you shop, built from purchases, surveys and loyalty schemes.
  • Charitable donations: Records of gifts you made to charities, churches, campaigns or fundraising pages, often with amounts, dates, payment method and the cause you supported.
  • Credit status information: Details from a credit file or lender record, such as open accounts, credit limits, missed payments, defaults, bankruptcies, hardship arrangements and recent credit enquiries.
  • Dates of birth: Your full birth date, day, month and year, collected at signup for age checks, identity verification, insurance quotes, birthday offers or government services.
  • 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.
  • Family structure: Information about your household, such as the number and ages of children, whether you are a single parent, who lives with you and whether you care for someone, collected by insurers, schools, government services, surveys and marketing databases.
  • Financial investments: Details of your investments, such as share holdings, managed funds, retirement or superannuation balances, brokerage account numbers, trading history and the platforms you use.
  • Home ownership statuses: A field showing whether you own your home outright, have a mortgage, rent or live with family, collected by lenders, insurers, utilities and marketing surveys.
  • Income levels: An estimated or self-reported household or personal income band, collected by surveys, lenders, retailers, dating apps and marketing databases.
  • Job titles: Your role or position, such as accounts payable officer, nurse or IT administrator, recorded by professional networks, business software, event registrations and marketing lists.
  • Marital statuses: Your relationship status, such as single, married, de facto, separated, divorced or widowed, collected by insurers, lenders, government forms, dating apps and marketing surveys.
  • Names: Your first name, surname and sometimes middle name or initials, as you gave them when you signed up. It appears in almost every breach because nearly every account asks for it.

What to do now

  1. Check whether your own address is in this dataset with the free email breach check.
  2. Review the accounts connected to this service and turn on two-factor authentication.
  3. Turn on two-factor authentication on your email account first, because it is the reset path for everything else.
  4. 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 Data Enrichment Records breach?

The Data Enrichment Records breach exposed Buying preferences, Charitable donations, Credit status information, Dates of birth, Email addresses, Family structure, Financial investments, Home ownership statuses, Income levels, Job titles, Marital statuses, Names, Net worths, Phone numbers, Physical addresses, Political donations. About 8.2M accounts were affected.

Was I affected by the Data Enrichment Records 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 Data Enrichment Records breach?

Treat any message that quotes details from this breach as suspicious, turn on two-factor authentication, and consider removing your details from people-search sites if your address or phone was included.

Next steps