Data breaches → Mappery
Was your data in the Mappery breach?
2018 · mappery.com · ~205,242 accounts exposedCritical severity · 10/10
Mappery (mappery.com) suffered a data breach in 2018 that exposed around 205,242 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 December 2018, the mapping website Mappery suffered a data breach that exposed over 205k unique email addresses. The incident also exposed usernames, the geographic location of the user and passwords stored as unsalted SHA-1 hashes. No response was received from Mappery when contacted about the incident.
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 Mappery 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.
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.
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.
- 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 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 Mappery breach?
The Mappery breach exposed passwords, location data, 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 Mappery breach?
Around 205,242 accounts were exposed, making it a mid-sized breach.
What should I do if I had a Mappery 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 Mappery breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.
- Was your data in the Knuddels breach? (2018, ~808,330 accounts)
- Was your data in the BlackSpigotMC breach? (2019, ~140,029 accounts)
- Was your data in the Smogon breach? (2017, ~386,489 accounts)
- Was your data in the Light's Hope breach? (2018, ~30,484 accounts)
- Was your data in the Muslim Match breach? (2016, ~149,830 accounts)
- Was your data in the Bookmate breach? (2018, ~3,830,916 accounts)