Data breaches → JoomlArt
Was your data in the JoomlArt breach?
2018 · joomlart.com · ~22,477 accounts exposedCritical severity · 10/10
JoomlArt (joomlart.com) suffered a data breach in 2018 that exposed around 22,477 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 January 2018, the Joomla template website JoomlArt inadvertently exposed more than 22k unique customer records in a Jira ticket. The exposed data was from iJoomla and JomSocial, both services that JoomlArt acquired the previous year. The data included usernames, email addresses, purchases and passwords stored as MD5 hashes. When contacted, JoomlArt advised they were aware of the incident and had previously notified impacted parties.
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 JoomlArt breach exposed and what each item actually enables:
Attackers replay leaked passwords across other sites (“credential stuffing”). Because most people reuse passwords, one leak often unlocks email, shopping and banking accounts elsewhere.
Direct financial fraud, plus convincing scam calls that quote your real card or account details to establish trust.
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, Names, Passwords, Payment histories, Usernames.
What to do if you were affected
These steps are ordered for this specific breach — the most urgent action given what leaked comes first.
- Passwords: Change this password everywhere you have reused it, starting with your email account — whoever controls your email can reset everything else.
- Payment or bank details: Contact your bank, ask them to monitor or reissue the card, and check statements for small “test” transactions.
- 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 8 years old. Old credentials still cause harm — leaked passwords from a decade ago are still tried against new accounts every day.
Passwords are the reason breach age matters less than people expect. Leaked credentials are compiled into wordlists that get tried against new services for years afterwards, so a password exposed here is unsafe to use anywhere, ever again.
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 JoomlArt breach?
The JoomlArt breach exposed passwords, payment or bank details, names and usernames, email addresses. Attackers replay leaked passwords across other sites (“credential stuffing”). Because most people reuse passwords, one leak often unlocks email, shopping and banking accounts elsewhere.
How many people were affected by the JoomlArt breach?
Around 22,477 accounts were exposed, making it a smaller, more targeted breach.
What should I do if I had a JoomlArt account?
Change this password everywhere you have reused it, starting with your email account — whoever controls your email can reset everything else. 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 JoomlArt breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.
- Was your data in the ClixSense breach? (2016, ~2,424,784 accounts)
- Was your data in the Ashley Madison breach? (2015, ~30,811,934 accounts)
- Was your data in the Lanwar breach? (2018, ~45,120 accounts)
- Was your data in the Hakko Corporation breach? (2019, ~9,665 accounts)
- Was your data in the The Fly on the Wall breach? (2017, ~84,011 accounts)
- Was your data in the Horse Isle breach? (2020, ~27,786 accounts)