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Data breaches → Mashable

Was your data in the Mashable breach?

2020 · mashable.com · ~1,414,677 accounts exposedHigh severity · 7/10

Mashable (mashable.com) suffered a data breach in 2020 that exposed around 1,414,677 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 approximately mid-2020, Mashable suffered a data breach that subsequently turned up publicly in November 2020. The data included 1.4 million unique email addresses along with names, genders, expired auth tokens, physical locations, links to social media profiles and days and months of birth. The data was provided to HIBP by dehashed.com.

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 Mashable breach exposed and what each item actually enables:

Dates of birth

Date of birth is a permanent identifier used to verify identity by phone. Combined with a name and address it is often enough to impersonate you.

Location data

Reveals where you live, work or travel, which supports both targeted scams and physical-safety risks.

Names and usernames

Links this leak to your other accounts — a reused username lets anyone build a profile of you across platforms.

Email addresses

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.

IP addresses

Reveals your approximate location and internet provider, which adds credibility to targeted scams.

Also listed in this breach: Auth tokens, Email addresses, Genders, Geographic locations, IP addresses, Names, Partial dates of birth, Social media profiles.

What to do if you were affected

These steps are ordered for this specific breach — the most urgent action given what leaked comes first.

  1. Dates of birth: Never confirm your date of birth to an inbound caller — hang up and dial the organisation back on a published number.
  2. Location data: Review location sharing on the accounts you still hold with this service.
  3. Names and usernames: Search your usual username to see what else it exposes, and use distinct handles for sensitive accounts.
  4. Email addresses: Treat any message referencing this service with suspicion, and never act on links in unexpected emails.
  5. IP addresses: No direct action needed, but be wary of anyone quoting your location as “proof” of identity.
  6. 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 6 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.

Check if your email was exposed.Nullivo's free scan checks your own verified email against known breaches — including Mashable — in 30 seconds. No password, no signup, and we only ever scan your own email. Run your free scan →

Frequently asked questions

What data was exposed in the Mashable breach?

The Mashable breach exposed dates of birth, location data, names and usernames, email addresses, ip addresses. Date of birth is a permanent identifier used to verify identity by phone. Combined with a name and address it is often enough to impersonate you.

How many people were affected by the Mashable breach?

Around 1,414,677 accounts were exposed, making it a large breach.

What should I do if I had a Mashable account?

Never confirm your date of birth to an inbound caller — hang up and dial the organisation back on a published number. 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 Mashable breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.

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