Breach date: 2017-03-14. Added to this index: 2017-10-18. Accounts affected: about 2.3M. Domain: not listed.
What happened
In March 2017, a 27GB database backup file named "Master Deeds" was sent to HIBP by a supporter of the project. Upon detailed analysis later that year, the file was found to contain the personal data of tens of millions of living and deceased South African residents. The data included extensive personal attributes such as names, addresses, ethnicities, genders, birth dates, government issued personal identification numbers and 2.2 million email addresses. At the time of publishing, it's alleged the data was sourced from Dracore Data Sciences (Dracore is yet to publicly confirm or deny the data was sourced from their systems). On 18 October 2017, the file was found to have been published to a publicly accessible web server where it was located at the root of an IP address with directory listing enabled. The file was dated 8 April 2015.
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.
Deceased statuses: A flag in a company or government record showing that an account holder has died. Occasionally it is set in error on someone who is alive.
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.
Employers: The name of the company or organisation you work for, collected by professional networks, job sites, insurers, lenders and many signup forms.
Ethnicities: Your recorded ethnic or racial background, often from workplace diversity surveys, health records, government forms, genetic testing services, dating apps and research studies.
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.
Government issued IDs: Numbers or images of official identity documents, such as passports, national identity cards, Social Security numbers, Medicare cards, tax file numbers, residence permits and voter cards.
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.
Job titles: Your role or position, such as accounts payable officer, nurse or IT administrator, recorded by professional networks, business software, event registrations and marketing lists.
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.
Phone numbers: Your mobile or landline number, collected at signup for contact, delivery updates, marketing and two-factor codes.
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 Master Deeds breach?
The Master Deeds breach exposed Dates of birth, Deceased statuses, Email addresses, Employers, Ethnicities, Genders, Government issued IDs, Home ownership statuses, Job titles, Names, Nationalities, Phone numbers, Physical addresses. About 2.3M accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the Master Deeds 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 Master Deeds 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.