Breach date: 2019-03-01. Added to this index: 2023-09-14. Accounts affected: about 4.3M. Domain: malindoair.com.
What happened
In early 2019, the Malaysian airline Malindo Air suffered a data breach that exposed tens of millions of customer records. Containing 4.3M unique email addresses, the breach also exposed extensive personal information including names, dates of birth, genders, physical addresses, phone numbers and passport details. The data was later extensively shared on popular hacking forums.
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.
Loyalty program details: Your membership number, points balance, tier, purchase history and linked details from a supermarket, airline, hotel, fuel or retail rewards scheme.
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.
Nationalities: The country of citizenship recorded against your account, collected by airlines, travel sites, visa services, banks, employers and some dating apps.
Passport numbers: The unique number printed on your passport, often stored with your full name, nationality, date of birth and expiry date by airlines, hotels, travel agents, exchanges and identity verification services.
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.
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 MalindoAir breach?
The MalindoAir breach exposed Dates of birth, Email addresses, Genders, Loyalty program details, Names, Nationalities, Passport numbers, Phone numbers, Physical addresses, Salutations. About 4.3M accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the MalindoAir 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 MalindoAir 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.