Researchers Link the PieceHK Hotmail Combolist to 776 Logins

HEROIC analysts identified a combolist file labeled "PRIVATE HOTMAIL UHQ BY PIECEHK 101" uploaded to Telegram on 22 June 2025. The file contained 776 records pairing email addresses with plaintext passwords, along with associated URLs, specifically targeting Hotmail accounts. The "UHQ" label, short for ultra high quality, signals that the uploader claims these credentials are freshly verified and working.

Why This Is Dangerous

Because the passwords in this file are plaintext, no cracking is needed to use them. Anyone who obtains the file can log directly into a victim's Hotmail account, which often serves as the recovery email for banking, shopping, and social media accounts, giving an attacker a path into far more than just email.

What Was Exposed

• Email addresses
• Plaintext passwords
• Associated account URLs

Why This Matters

Email accounts are often the master key to a person's digital life. If an attacker logs into a Hotmail account from this leak, they can reset passwords on other services, intercept financial notifications, or impersonate the victim. Combined with password reuse, a leak like this can lead directly to account takeover, identity theft, and financial fraud.

How Combolist Leaks Work

A combolist is a compiled text file of email and password pairs gathered from earlier breaches, phishing campaigns, or malware infections, then bundled together and marketed under labels like "UHQ" to suggest quality, and shared on platforms like Telegram. Building one does not require hacking Hotmail itself. It requires collecting already-stolen credentials tied to Hotmail accounts from various sources and packaging them for resale or free distribution.

Check If You Are Affected

If you use Hotmail or Outlook and want to know if your credentials are part of this or any other leaked dataset, HEROIC's free breach scanner checks your email against a database of more than 400 billion leaked records in seconds and tells you what to do next if you are exposed.