Powerbot data breach

Breach date: 2014-09-01. Added to this index: 2017-07-01. Accounts affected: about 504K. Domain: powerbot.org.

What happened

In approximately September 2014, the RuneScape bot website Powerbot suffered a data breach resulting in the exposure of over half a million unique user records. The data contained email and IP addresses, usernames and salted MD5 hashes of passwords. The site was previously reported as compromised on the Vigilante.pw breached database directory.

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

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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

  1. Check whether your own address is in this dataset with the free email breach check.
  2. Change the password on this service and every other site where you used the same password.
  3. Turn on two-factor authentication on your email account first, because it is the reset path for everything else.
  4. 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 Powerbot breach?

The Powerbot breach exposed Email addresses, IP addresses, Passwords, Usernames. About 504K accounts were affected.

Was I affected by the Powerbot 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 Powerbot 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.

Next steps