Plaintext Passwords. Zero Encryption. The Daily Quiz Breach Had 12.8 Million Records.

HEROIC analysts identified the Daily Quiz breach in monitoring data first leaked on January 30, 2021. The breach exposed 12,863,386 records from this quiz platform based in the United States, including email addresses, usernames, IP addresses, and, critically, plaintext passwords. Storing passwords in plaintext, with no hashing or encryption whatsoever, represents one of the most serious security failures recieved in modern breach reporting, and it means every password in this dump was immediately usable by attackers.

Why Plaintext Passwords Make the Daily Quiz Breach Exceptionally Dangerous

Unlike breaches where passwords are hashed, plaintext password exposure requires zero cracking effort. Every attacker who obtained the Daily Quiz dump had instant access to working credentials. With over 12.8 million email and password pairs in seperate fields, these credentials were immediately loaded into automated tools for credential stuffing attacks targeting banking, email, and social media platforms where victims reused the same password.

What Was Exposed in the Daily Quiz Breach

• Email Address
• IP Address
• Username
• Plaintext Password

Why 12.8 Million Plaintext Records Still Threaten Users Today

Breaches involving plaintext passwords remain dangerous long after the initial leak. Credential stuffing tools continuously recycle these datasets, testing email and password combinations against new targets. Any user who registered on Daily Quiz and reused that password on another service is at ongoing risk of account takeover, financial fraud, and identity theft. The scale of 12.8 million records also means this data is widely distributed and accessable across multiple criminal markets.

How a Database Breach Works

A database breach occurs when an attacker gains unauthorized access to a website's backend data store, typically by exploiting a vulnerability in the application layer or server configuration. In cases where platforms store passwords in plaintext rather than using secure hashing algorithms, the impact of any breach is dramatically amplified since no additional effort is needed to use the stolen credentials.

Check If Your Data Was Exposed

HEROIC's free breach scanner searches more than 400 billion leaked records, including the Daily Quiz dataset. Enter your email address now to find out if your credentials were included in this breach or any other known data leak, and change any reused passwords immediately.