Breach date: 2023-04-05. Added to this index: 2023-04-05. Accounts affected: about 8.0M. Domain: genesis.market.
What happened
In April 2023, the stolen identity marketplace Genesis Market was shut down by the FBI and a coalition of law enforcement agencies across the globe in "Operation Cookie Monster". The service traded in "browser fingerprints" which enabled criminals to impersonate victims and access their online services. As many of the impacted accounts did not include email addresses, "8M" is merely an approximation intended to indicate scale. Other personal data compromised by the service included names, addresses and credit card information, although not all individuals had each of these fields exposed.
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
Browser user agent details: A short text string your browser sends to every website, naming the browser, its version, the operating system and often the device type, for example Chrome on Windows or Safari on an iPhone.
Credit card CVV: The three or four digit security code printed on your card, also called CVC or CID, which online shops ask for to show you hold the physical card.
Credit cards: Your card number, usually with the expiry date and cardholder name, and sometimes the billing address. Some breaches hold only a partial number showing the last four digits.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Genesis Market breach?
The Genesis Market breach exposed Browser user agent details, Credit card CVV, Credit cards, Dates of birth, Email addresses, Names, Passwords, Phone numbers, Physical addresses, Usernames. About 8.0M accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the Genesis Market 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 Genesis Market 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.