Breach date: 2020-06-01. Added to this index: 2020-11-10. Accounts affected: about 1.4M. Domain: mashable.com.
What happened
In approximately mid-2020, Mashable suffered a data breach that subsequently turned up publicly in November 2020. The data included 1.4 million unique email addresses along with names, genders, expired auth tokens, physical locations, links to social media profiles and days and months of birth. The data was provided to HIBP by dehashed.com.
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
Auth tokens: Strings a service issues after you log in, session cookies, API keys, refresh tokens or reset links, that prove to the server you are already signed in.
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.
Geographic locations: A general location recorded on your account, such as a country, state, city, postcode or region, either typed in by you or estimated from your IP address.
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.
Partial dates of birth: Part of your date of birth, such as the day and month without a year, or a birth year on its own. Social apps often store it for birthday reminders or age checks.
Social media profiles: Usernames, profile URLs or handles for social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn or Discord, stored alongside another account.
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 Mashable breach?
The Mashable breach exposed Auth tokens, Email addresses, Genders, Geographic locations, IP addresses, Names, Partial dates of birth, Social media profiles. About 1.4M accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the Mashable 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 Mashable 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.