Breach date: 2018-05-07. Added to this index: 2018-05-24. Accounts affected: about 778K. Domain: viewfines.co.za.
What happened
In May 2018, the South African website for viewing traffic fines online known as ViewFines suffered a data breach. Over 934k records containing 778k unique email addresses were exposed and included names, phone numbers, government issued IDs and passwords stored in plain text.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Change the password on this service and every other site where you used the same password.
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 ViewFines breach?
The ViewFines breach exposed Email addresses, Government issued IDs, Names, Passwords, Phone numbers. About 778K accounts were affected.
Was I affected by the ViewFines 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 ViewFines 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.