Astoria Company LLC astoria.com Astoria data breach: what happened and what to do
Astoria Company LLC, a Texas lead-generation firm, told regulators about a January 2021 breach affecting about 940,000 people. Exposed data included names, contact details, dates of birth and Social Security or driver's license numbers.
View all 13,177 breaches- Breach date
- 19 Jan 2021
- Made public
- 24 Nov 2021
- Affected
- 940,000
- Data exposed
- Names, Physical addresses, Email addresses, Phone numbers, Dates of birth, Social security numbers, Driver's licenses
- Last updated
Reviewed by Anthon Wansland
Head of Product & Co-Founder
Serus is a privacy company with paid tools to find and remove your personal data. This page is free and based on official sources.
What happened
Astoria Company LLC is a lead-generation company in Fort Worth, Texas. According to its filing with the Maine Attorney General, the breach happened on January 19, 2021 and was discovered on February 8, 2021. Astoria notified some people in April 2021. After a wider investigation, it sent letters to more people starting November 24, 2021, and the filing lists about 940,000 people affected in total.
The breach was also listed by the California and Washington Attorneys General.
Sources checked: apps.web.maine.gov, oag.ca.gov, databreaches.net
Last verified against the official page:
What was exposed
According to the notice, the data included names, mailing and email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and Social Security or driver's license numbers. Some records also had employment information. Astoria reported the incident to the FBI. The Maine filing says no identity theft protection services were offered.
What it means for you
A Social Security number with a name and date of birth is what criminals need to open credit in your name. Contact details make phishing calls and texts about the breach more believable.
The scope was disputed publicly. Astoria said its investigation showed much of the data in an alleged data set did not come from its systems, while a security researcher claimed a larger scope. This page uses the figures from the regulator filing.
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Freeze your credit at all three bureaus
The FTC says a credit freeze is free and stops most new accounts being opened in your name. Place it separately at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
- 2
Check your credit reports
Get your free reports at AnnualCreditReport.com and look for accounts you don't recognize. If you find any, report it at IdentityTheft.gov.
- 3
Expect phishing that mentions the breach
Your name, phone and address were exposed. Don't click links in unexpected messages and contact companies using details you already trust.
- 4
Check whether you're in this and other breaches
Run a free Serus scan to see whether your email or phone number shows up in breaches, and get alerts if it does.
Official filings
- Washington Attorney General , filed 22 Nov 2021 : 22,095 people
Timeline
-
The breach happened
-
Reported to the Washington Attorney General
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The company made it public
Frequently asked
Was I affected by the Astoria breach?
Astoria sent letters to people whose data was involved, starting in April 2021 and again from November 24, 2021. If you got one, you were included.
What was exposed?
Names, mailing and email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security or driver's license numbers, per the notice.
Did Astoria offer credit monitoring?
The Maine filing says identity theft protection services were not offered.
Sources
- apps.web.maine.gov/online/aeviewer/ME/40/e57b83e6-d8a7-4414-a22c-32ccebb3976d.shtml
- oag.ca.gov/privacy/databreach/list
- databreaches.net/update-astoria-notifying-940000-consumers-after-breach-earlier-this-year
- consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-credit-freezes-and-fraud-alerts
- identitytheft.gov
Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll re-check it.
