Not SOCRadar data breach: what happened and what to do
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.
In August 2024, over 332M rows of email addresses were posted online, alleged to come from SOCRadar. HIBP counts 282,478,425 unique addresses. An investigation on SOCRadar's behalf said the data was scraped from public sources, not stolen from its systems.
View all 13,118 breaches- Breach date
- 3 Aug 2024
- Affected
- 282,478,425
- Data exposed
- Email addresses
- Verified
- Yes
- Last updated
Source: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
What happened
This entry is a good example of a "breach" that isn't a hack. In August 2024, over 332 million rows of email addresses were posted to a hacking forum. The poster alleged the addresses came from the cybersecurity firm SOCRadar.
Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) reports that an investigation carried out on SOCRadar's behalf concluded that the actor "merely utilised functionalities inherent in the platform's standard offerings, designed to gather information from publicly available sources". HIBP adds that there is no suggestion the incident compromised SOCRadar's security or posed any risk to its customers. SOCRadar published its own response to the claim, linked below. In total, the data set held 282,478,425 unique addresses of valid email format, and HIBP added it on 9 August 2024.
The only data type HIBP lists is email addresses. No names, passwords, phone numbers or financial details are listed. That keeps the direct risk low, but a list of 282 million working addresses is useful to spammers and phishers, because it confirms which addresses are real.
If your email shows up here, the realistic consequence is more spam and phishing, not account takeover. You don't need to change your password because of this entry. You should still keep an eye on the messages you get.
The steps below are short.
Sources checked: haveibeenpwned.com, socradar.io, consumer.ftc.gov
Last verified against the official page:
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Expect more spam and phishing
Treat unexpected emails asking you to act urgently with suspicion. The FTC explains how to recognize and report phishing: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams.
- 2
Don't click links or reply to unknown senders
Replying to spam can confirm your address is active. Mark it as spam or phishing in your email app instead.
- 3
Use a unique password and 2FA on your email
This breach lists no passwords, but your email account is the key to your other accounts, so make it strong and turn on two-factor authentication.
- 4
Check whether your email or phone is in this and other breaches
Run a free Serus scan. Serus monitors breach databases and the dark web and alerts you when your data appears, so you know which accounts to look at first.
Frequently asked
Was SOCRadar hacked?
HIBP says an investigation on SOCRadar's behalf concluded the data was gathered from publicly available sources using the platform's standard features, and that there is no suggestion SOCRadar's security was compromised.
What was exposed?
Email addresses only, per HIBP.
Was I affected?
HIBP lists 282,478,425 unique addresses. Search yours on Have I Been Pwned or run a free Serus scan.
Should I change my password?
HIBP lists no passwords for this entry, so it isn't required by this breach alone.
Sources
Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll re-check it.
