The MyHeritage Database Contains Exactly 84,978,398 Email and Password Hash Pairs

HEROIC analysts confirmed that the MyHeritage breach occured in October 2017, though the company did not discover it until seven months later when a security researcher found the stolen data on a private server. By that point, 84,978,398 user records had already been taken. The exposed data included email addresses, password salts, and password hashes created using the SHA1 algorithm. That is nearly 85 million people whose genealogy account credentials were out in the open.

How Stolen Email Addresses and Password Hashes Put You at Risk

Even though passwords were hashed rather than stored in plain text, the SHA1 algorithm used by MyHeritage is considered weak by modern standards. Attackers can use precomputed tables of common passwords and their SHA1 hashes to reverse many of them quickly. Once a password is cracked, it becomes accessable to anyone running credential stuffing tools, which automatically test those email and password combinations against other sites like Gmail, banking apps, and workplace portals.

What Was Exposed in the MyHeritage Breach

• Email Address
• Salt
• Password Hash

Why 85 Million Genealogy Records Are a Serious Problem

People who use genealogy sites often share personal family information and connect accounts to their real identities. That connection makes the MyHeritage credentials more valuable to attackers than credentials from a gaming site might be. The data from this breach appeared on dark web marketplaces and has been tied to credential stuffing attacks targeting seperate platforms and services. Even if a user changed their MyHeritage password after the breach, any other account using the same credentials remains at risk to this day.

How a Database Breach Works

A database breach happens when an unauthorized person gains access to a company's stored user data. This can happen through exploited software vulnerabilities, weak server configurations, stolen employee credentials, or other attack paths. Once an attacker has copied the database, they can use it themselves or sell it to others who will. The data can then circulate for years across underground markets and be used in automated login attacks against hundreds of other websites.

Check If Your Data Was Exposed

HEROIC's free breach scanner checks your email against more than 400 billion exposed records, including the MyHeritage breach. Run a free scan at HEROIC.com to see exactly which breaches your information appears in and what steps to take to protect yourself.