Dark Web Intel: 4,080 Password Hashes From the Voto Informado Breach

HEROIC analysts identified a database breach tied to Voto Informado, a Mexican educational platform run through UNAM that helps students research candidates and make informed voting decisions. The breach is dated November 2, 2022, and exposed 4,080 records containing usernames, full names, birthdays, IP addresses, email addresses, and password hashes protected with either bcrypt or salted MD5.

Why the Voto Informado Breach Is Dangerous

Unlike the plaintext-password leaks common in stealer logs, this breach exposed hashed passwords, meaning the actual passwords aren't sitting in the open. But hashing isn't a guarantee of safety. MD5 is a decades-old algorithm that modern hardware can crack quickly, especially when the password is short or common, even with a salt attached. Bcrypt-hashed passwords are far more resistant, but the mix of both algorithms in the same dataset suggests some accounts are much better protected than others.

What Was Exposed in the Voto Informado Breach

• Email addresses
• Usernames
• First and last names
• Birthdays
• IP addresses
• Password hashes (MD5 with salt, and bcrypt)

Why This Matters

Birthdays, usernames, and IP addresses might seem harmless individually, but combined with an email address they give an attacker most of what's needed to answer security questions, guess password-reset patterns, or impersonate a victim to customer support. Anyone whose password was hashed with the older MD5 algorithm should treat it as effectively exposed and change that password anywhere else they used it, since credential stuffing tools don't care whether a password came from a cracked hash or a plaintext leak.

How This Database Breach Happened

This is a direct database compromise, meaning an attacker gained access to Voto Informado's backend and extracted the user table wholesale, complete with authentication data. The presence of two different hashing algorithms in the same leak often points to a platform that migrated its password security over time without fully re-securing older accounts, a common gap that attackers specifically look for. The stolen data was then posted to a cybercrime forum for others to download.

Check If You Are Affected

If you've ever registered on Voto Informado, it's worth checking your exposure. HEROIC's free breach scanner checks your email against more than 400 billion leaked records, including this one, so you know immediately whether your information was exposed and which passwords to change.