Reuse Passwords? Ipswich Sunday Football League Leaked 2,624 Records

HEROIC analysts identified a dataset from the Ipswich Sunday Football League, a UK amateur football league site serving Sunday teams in Suffolk, that was breached on August 26, 2018. The incident exposed 2,624 records containing email addresses and password hashes stored in a mix of MD5 and phpass formats, later posted on a hacking forum.

Why the Ipswich Sunday Football League Breach Is Dangerous

Using two different hashing methods across the same user base is a sign of inconsistent security practices, and the weaker MD5 hashes in this file can be cracked in bulk with widely available tools. Once an attacker recovers a password, they pair it with the matching email address and have a working login, no matter how small or local the original site seemed.

What Was Exposed

• Email addresses
• Password hashes (MD5 and phpass)

Why This Matters

It is easy to assume a breach at a small amateur sports league is not worth worrying about, but the risk comes from password reuse, not the size of the site. Anyone who used the same password to register for this football league and for their email or banking account faces the same credential stuffing risk as a victim of a much larger breach: account takeover, financial fraud, or identity theft.

How Database and Combolist Breaches Like This Happen

This breach traces back to a direct compromise of the league's website database, most likely through a vulnerability in its content management system or login page. Once attackers copied the table of emails and password hashes, they packaged the data into a combolist, a compiled file built for easy reuse. Combolists like this one continue to circulate on hacking forums for years, which is why 2018 data is only now worth checking.

Check If You Are Affected

HEROIC's free breach scanner checks your email address against a database of more than 400 billion leaked records, including this Ipswich Sunday Football League breach. Run a scan now, and change any password you may still be reusing from 2018.