Breach date: 2024-10-19. Added to this index: 2024-11-11. Accounts affected: about 57M. Domain: hottopic.com.
What happened
In October 2024, retailer Hot Topic suffered a data breach that exposed 57 million unique email addresses. The impacted data also included physical addresses, phone numbers, purchases, genders, dates of birth and partial credit data containing card type, expiry and last 4 digits.
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
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.
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.
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.
Partial credit card data: Fragments of a payment card rather than the full number, typically the first six or last four digits, the card brand, the expiry date or the cardholder name.
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.
Purchases: Records of items or services you bought, often with order numbers, prices, dates, delivery addresses and the store or seller involved.
Salutations: The title used before your name, such as Mr, Mrs, Ms, Mx, Dr or Rev, stored so letters and emails can address you formally.
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 Hot Topic breach?
The Hot Topic breach exposed Dates of birth, Email addresses, Genders, Names, Partial credit card data, Phone numbers, Physical addresses, Purchases, Salutations. About 57M accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the Hot Topic 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 Hot Topic 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.