The AVS TV Breach Put 31,848 Plaintext Passwords Online

HEROIC analysts have recorded a database breach affecting AVS TV, an entertainment platform based in India and operating at avstv.com, dated February 12, 2014. The incident exposed 31,848 records. The exposed data includes first names, last names, email addresses, usernames, and, critically, passwords stored in plaintext rather than being hashed or encrypted.

Why Plaintext Passwords Are Especially Dangerous

Most breaches at least involve hashed passwords, which require an attacker to crack them before they are usable. AVS TV stored passwords in plaintext, meaning every one of the 31,848 exposed passwords was immediately readable the moment the database was taken, with no cracking or cost required. Combined with full names and email addresses, this gives an attacker an instantly usable set of working logins tied to real identities.

What Was Exposed in the AVS TV Breach

• First names
• Last names
• Email addresses
• Usernames
• Plaintext passwords

Why This Matters

Because these passwords required no cracking, they could be used the same day they were stolen, plugged directly into credential stuffing tools that test the same email and password against banking, shopping, and email accounts. When a full name is attached to the login, it also enables more convincing phishing messages that use the victim's real name to appear legitimate, increasing the odds of a successful account takeover or follow-on fraud.

How a Plaintext Password Breach Happens

This incident is classified as a database breach, meaning attackers gained direct access to AVS TV's backend systems. Storing passwords in plaintext is a basic security failure. Rather than saving a one-way hash of each password, the platform kept the actual password text in its database, so once an attacker exfiltrated the user table through a vulnerability or misconfiguration, every credential was exposed in fully usable form with no extra work required.

Check If You Are Affected

If you ever created an account on AVS TV, change that password everywhere else you may have used it, and check your broader exposure. HEROIC's free breach scanner searches more than 400 billion breached records to show you instantly what has been exposed under your email address.