The Oetztal-Info Leak: 3,373 Email and Password Hashes Exposed

The Oetztal-Info Data Breach: What HEROIC Analysts Found

HEROIC analysts identified a data breach tied to Oetztal-Info, a travel and tourism website for the Ötztal region in Tyrol, Austria, dating back to August 26, 2018. The exposed dataset contains 3,373 records made up of email addresses and bcrypt hashed passwords, which were later found circulating on a prominent hacking forum.

Why This Leak Is Less Severe, But Still Worth Checking

Unlike breaches involving plaintext or weakly hashed passwords, Oetztal-Info stored its passwords using bcrypt, a hashing method built specifically to resist cracking attempts. That does not make this leak harmless, it simply means an attacker has to work harder. If your password was short, common, or a word found in a dictionary, it can still be cracked with enough time and computing resources, and once it is, the same risks apply as with any other exposed credential.

What Was Exposed in the Oetztal-Info Leak

• Email addresses
• Bcrypt hashed passwords
• 3,373 total records affected

Why This Matters Even for a Small Regional Website

A tourism information site may not seem like a high value target, but the email address behind each account is often reused across dozens of other services. If a cracked password from this leak matches the one used for personal email, banking, or social media, an attacker can use credential stuffing tools to test that same login across many other sites automatically, leading to account takeover or further compromise.

How a Database Dump Becomes a Combolist

This leak is classified as both a database breach and a combolist. The data was most likely extracted directly from Oetztal-Info's own systems through a vulnerability in its database, then repackaged into a combolist, a simple list pairing each email address with its password hash. Even with bcrypt protection, these combolists circulate on hacking forums because attackers can still target the weakest passwords in the set.

Check If Your Email Address Was Part of This Leak

If you have ever booked travel information or created an account through Oetztal-Info or a similar regional tourism site, it is worth checking whether your information appears in this or another breach. HEROIC's free breach scanner checks your email address against a database of more than 400 billion leaked records, including this one, and tells you immediately if you are exposed. If you are, change that password everywhere you have used it and turn on two-factor authentication wherever it is offered.