Data breaches → piZap
Was your data in the piZap breach?
2017 · pizap.com · ~41,817,893 accounts exposedCritical severity · 10/10
piZap (pizap.com) suffered a data breach in 2017 that exposed around 41,817,893 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 December 2017, the online photo editing site piZap suffered a data breach. The data was later placed up for sale on a dark web marketplace along with a collection of other data breaches in February 2019. A total of 42 million unique email addresses were included in the breach alongside names, genders and links to Facebook profiles when the social media platform was used to authenticate to piZap. When accounts were created directly on piZap without using Facebook for authentication, passwords stored as SHA-1 hashes were also exposed.
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 piZap 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.
Also listed in this breach: Email addresses, Genders, Geographic locations, Names, Passwords, Social media profiles, Usernames, Website activity.
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 9 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 piZap breach?
The piZap 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 piZap breach?
Around 41,817,893 accounts were exposed, making it a very large breach by any measure.
What should I do if I had a piZap 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 piZap breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.
- Was your data in the Mate1.com breach? (2016, ~27,393,015 accounts)
- Was your data in the Wishbone (2020) breach? (2020, ~9,705,172 accounts)
- Was your data in the Wattpad breach? (2020, ~268,765,495 accounts)
- Was your data in the MeetMindful breach? (2020, ~1,422,717 accounts)
- Was your data in the Poshmark breach? (2018, ~36,395,491 accounts)
- Was your data in the Houzz breach? (2018, ~48,881,308 accounts)