Quantum Instruments

We've been tracking the resurgence of older breaches appearing in new aggregations, often repackaged and sold on Telegram channels. What caught our attention with the Quantum Instruments data wasn't the size—just under 47,000 records—but the age. The breach dates back to August 2018, yet it's being actively traded as "fresh" data. This suggests a potential for password reuse and highlights the long tail of risk associated with older compromised credentials. The reliance on outdated MD5 hashing also stands out, significantly increasing the risk of password cracking.

The Question and Answer Site with Weak Crypto: 47k Accounts at Risk

The breach originated from Bunedir, a Turkish question and answer website, as reported on August 26, 2018. The data surfaced on a popular breach aggregation site this week, prompting our investigation. What makes this notable is the continued circulation of this older data and the use of MD5 for password hashing. While MD5 was once a common hashing algorithm, it's now considered cryptographically broken and highly susceptible to brute-force attacks. The impact for enterprises is the potential compromise of user accounts if employees used the same credentials on corporate systems.

Breach Stats:

Key point: Total records exposed: 46,669

Key point: Types of data included: Email addresses, MD5 hashed passwords

Key point: Sensitive content types: None beyond credentials

Key point: Source structure: Likely a database export (not specified in original reporting)

Key point: Leak location(s): Breach aggregation sites, Telegram channels

Key point: Date of first appearance: August 26, 2018 (initial breach), recently resurfaced

External Context & Supporting Evidence

While initial reporting focused on the Bunedir breach itself, the re-emergence of this data highlights the persistence of compromised credentials. Security researcher Troy Hunt added the Bunedir breach to Have I Been Pwned? on August 27, 2018 (source: Have I Been Pwned), confirming its validity. Discussions on security forums indicate that threat actors are actively leveraging older breaches like this for credential stuffing attacks, attempting to reuse the exposed email/password combinations on other platforms. The Telegram channels where this data is being traded often advertise "fresh" dumps, misleading buyers about the age of the data. One Telegram post claimed these credentials were "good for account cracking," underscoring the intent to exploit reused passwords.

Email · Address · Password · Hash