SlideTeam slideteam.net SlideTeam data breach: what happened and what to do
SlideTeam, a presentation template marketplace, had about 1.4 million accounts breached in April 2021. The data was later published on a hacking forum. It held email addresses and names, plus salted password hashes.
View all 13,115 breaches- Breach date
- 6 Apr 2021
- Affected
- 1,464,271
- Data exposed
- Email addresses, Names, Passwords
- Verified
- Yes
- Last updated
Source: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
What happened
In April 2021, SlideTeam, which sells pre-designed presentation slides, had about 1.4 million records breached. According to Have I Been Pwned, the data was published on a hacking forum the following year. HIBP added it to its database in January 2023. The data was allegedly taken from a compromised Magento instance, the e-commerce software the shop runs on.
A security news site had reported the hack of the slide supplier in 2022, in a report linked from the HIBP entry.
What was exposed
The exposed data included:
- Email addresses
- Names
- Passwords, stored as salted hashes
A salted hash is a scrambled form of a password with extra random data added, so identical passwords don't look alike. It slows attackers down, but weak or common passwords can still be recovered.
What it lets criminals do
The real risk here is password reuse. Attackers take email and password pairs from a breach and try them on other sites, such as email or work logins. An email address and a name also make phishing messages more believable, for example a fake order or invoice from a template site.
The breach is from 2021, so any password you haven't changed since then is worth replacing.
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Change the password, and every place you reused it
Set a new password on SlideTeam, then change it anywhere else you used the same one. Use a password manager so each account gets its own.
- 2
Turn on two-factor login
Two-factor login on your email and other important accounts stops someone who has an old password from getting in with it alone.
- 3
Expect phishing that mentions the breach
Your name and email address were in the data, so messages can address you personally. Don't click links in unexpected emails or texts. Go to the site directly instead.
- 4
Check whether your email or phone is in this and other breaches
A free Serus scan checks your email and phone number against known breaches and tells you which accounts to secure first. Serus monitors breach databases and the dark web and alerts you, but it can't remove data that has already leaked.
Frequently asked
Was I affected by the SlideTeam data breach?
If you had a SlideTeam account in or before April 2021, possibly. Check your email on Have I Been Pwned or run a free Serus scan.
What was exposed in the SlideTeam breach?
Email addresses and names, plus salted password hashes, according to Have I Been Pwned.
Should I change my password?
Yes, if you used it on SlideTeam and haven't changed it since 2021, or if you reused it on other accounts.
Sources
Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll re-check it.
