RankWatch
What was exposed
Email addressesEmployersJob titlesNamesPhone numbers
What to do if you were affected
- Expect more phishing and spam at this address. Treat messages that reference this company with extra caution.
- Watch for text-message phishing and SIM-swap attempts on your phone number.
- Be wary of targeted scams that use your personal details to sound convincing.
Details
In approximately November 2016, the search engine optimisation management company RankWatch exposed a Mongo DB with no password publicly whereupon their data was exfiltrated and posted to an online forum. The data contained 7.4 million unique email addresses along with names, employers, phone numbers and job titles in a table called "us_emails". When contacted and advised of the incident, RankWatch would not reveal the purpose of the data, where it had been acquired from and whether the data owners had consented to its collection. The forum which originally posted the data explained it as being "in the same vein as the modbsolutions leak", a large list of corporate data allegedly used for spam purposes .
Frequently asked questions
What is the RankWatch data breach?
In approximately November 2016, the search engine optimisation management company RankWatch exposed a Mongo DB with no password publicly whereupon their data was exfiltrated and posted to an online forum. The data contained 7.4 million unique email addresses...
When did the data breach happen?
This data breach occurred around November 2016.
How many accounts were affected?
Around 7,445,067 accounts were affected.
What information was exposed?
Exposed data included Email addresses, Employers, Job titles, Names and Phone numbers.
What should I do if I was affected?
Expect more phishing and spam at this address. Treat messages that reference this company with extra caution. Watch for text-message phishing and SIM-swap attempts on your phone number. Be wary of targeted scams that use your personal details to sound convincing.
Related breaches