Data breaches → GeekedIn
Was your data in the GeekedIn breach?
2016 · geekedin.net · ~1,073,164 accounts exposedHigh severity · 6/10
GeekedIn (geekedin.net) suffered a data breach in 2016 that exposed around 1,073,164 accounts. If you had an account, some of your personal data may be circulating in leaked databases. The fastest way to know is to check your own email — free, in about 30 seconds, no password required.
What happened
In August 2016, the technology recruitment site GeekedIn left a MongoDB database exposed and over 8M records were extracted by an unknown third party. The breached data was originally scraped from GitHub in violation of their terms of use and contained information exposed in public profiles, including over 1 million members' email addresses. Full details on the incident (including how impacted members can see their leaked data) are covered in the blog post on 8 million GitHub profiles were leaked from GeekedIn's MongoDB - here's how to see yours.
Breach details sourced from Have I Been Pwned, the industry-standard breach database. Risk analysis by Nullivo.
What was exposed, and why it matters
Not all breaches carry the same risk — what matters is which fields leaked. Here is what the GeekedIn breach exposed and what each item actually enables:
Reveals where you live, work or travel, which supports both targeted scams and physical-safety risks.
Links this leak to your other accounts — a reused username lets anyone build a profile of you across platforms.
Puts you on spam and phishing lists, and confirms to attackers that you hold an account with this service — which makes impersonation emails more believable.
Also listed in this breach: Email addresses, Geographic locations, Names, Professional skills, Usernames, Years of professional experience.
What to do if you were affected
These steps are ordered for this specific breach — the most urgent action given what leaked comes first.
- Location data: Review location sharing on the accounts you still hold with this service.
- Names and usernames: Search your usual username to see what else it exposes, and use distinct handles for sensitive accounts.
- Email addresses: Treat any message referencing this service with suspicion, and never act on links in unexpected emails.
- Check whether your own email appears in this breach — run a free scan to confirm before you spend time on the steps above.
How urgent is this now?
This breach is over 10 years old. Old credentials still cause harm — leaked passwords from a decade ago are still tried against new accounts every day.
Remember: a breach can't be "un-leaked" — once a database is out, it exists in countless copies. The goal is to make the leaked data useless: change what can be changed, lock down what can't, and remove what has been republished.
Frequently asked questions
What data was exposed in the GeekedIn breach?
The GeekedIn breach exposed location data, names and usernames, email addresses. Reveals where you live, work or travel, which supports both targeted scams and physical-safety risks.
How many people were affected by the GeekedIn breach?
Around 1,073,164 accounts were exposed, making it a large breach.
What should I do if I had a GeekedIn account?
Review location sharing on the accounts you still hold with this service. You can check whether your own email appears in this breach with a free Nullivo scan — no password required.
Breaches that exposed similar data
If the GeekedIn breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.
- Was your data in the Army Force Online breach? (2016, ~1,531,235 accounts)
- Was your data in the Bell (2017 breach) breach? (2017, ~2,231,256 accounts)
- Was your data in the InterPals breach? (2015, ~3,439,414 accounts)
- Was your data in the Gaadi breach? (2015, ~4,261,179 accounts)
- Was your data in the Knuddels breach? (2018, ~808,330 accounts)
- Was your data in the Tout breach? (2014, ~652,683 accounts)