Breach Database / Mac Forums
Yes — Mac Forums was breached.
- 326,714 accounts affected
- Breach occurred 2016-07-03 · mac-forums.com
- Verified entry in the Have I Been Pwned catalog
What happened
In July 2016, the self-proclaimed "Ultimate Source For Your Mac" website Mac Forums suffered a data breach. The vBulletin-based system exposed over 326k usernames, email and IP addresses, dates of birth and passwords stored as salted MD5 hashes. The data was later discovered being traded on a popular hacking forum. Mac Forums did not respond when contacted about the incident via their contact us form.
What data was exposed
- Dates of birth
- Email addresses
- IP addresses
- Passwords
- Usernames
What to do right now
- Change your password for this service now. And change it anywhere you reused the same password — attackers try leaked passwords on other sites within hours ("credential stuffing").
- Turn on two-factor authentication. Even a leaked password is useless against an account protected by a second factor. Prefer an authenticator app over SMS.
- Expect convincing phishing emails. Attackers use breached details to write personalized emails. Be suspicious of any message referencing this service.
- Check your other accounts on Have I Been Pwned. Your email address may appear in other breaches you don't know about yet.
- Monitor the apps you use going forward. Clearly watches the breach record for the companies behind your apps and alerts you the moment one appears.
Breach data from Have I Been Pwned. Listing here means the service appears in the public breach record — not that your personal data was affected.