Breach date: 2015-09-16. Added to this index: 2016-09-06. Accounts affected: about 7.2M. Domain: experian.com.
What happened
In September 2015, the US based credit bureau and consumer data broker Experian suffered a data breach that impacted 15 million customers who had applied for financing from T-Mobile. An alleged data breach was subsequently circulated containing personal information including names, physical and email addresses, birth dates and various other personal attributes. Multiple Have I Been Pwned subscribers verified portions of the data as being accurate, but the actual source of it was inconclusive therefor this breach has been flagged as "unverified".
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
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.
Ethnicities: Your recorded ethnic or racial background, often from workplace diversity surveys, health records, government forms, genetic testing services, dating apps and research studies.
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.
Genders: The gender or sex recorded on your profile, usually picked from a list at signup, sometimes with a title such as Mr or Ms or a gender identity option beyond male and female.
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.
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.
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.
Phone numbers: Your mobile or landline number, collected at signup for contact, delivery updates, marketing and two-factor codes.
Physical addresses: Your residential, postal, billing or delivery address, stored by retailers, utilities, banks, government services and almost any company that sends you something.
What to do now
Check whether your own address is in this dataset with the free email breach check.
Review the accounts connected to this service and turn on two-factor authentication.
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 Experian (2015) breach?
The Experian (2015) breach exposed Credit status information, Dates of birth, Email addresses, Ethnicities, Family structure, Genders, Home ownership statuses, Income levels, IP addresses, Names, Phone numbers, Physical addresses, Purchasing habits. About 7.2M accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the Experian (2015) 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 Experian (2015) 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.