Data breach · January 2017

Was I in the Sephora breach?

Sephora is a beauty retailer. Its breach happened in January 2017 and exposed 780,073 accounts. It included dates of birth, email addresses, ethnicities and genders and 2 other kinds of detail. If you had an account there by January 2017, check your address below to see whether it is one of them.

Breach record last updated . Steps read from the government pages at the foot of this page.

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01

What happened?

The retailer was breached around January 2017. Customers in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia were affected. Exposed records held email addresses, names, genders, birth dates, ethnicity and other personal details.

Organisation
Sephora, a beauty retailer (sephora.com.au)
When it happened
January 2017
Added to monitored breach databases
6 October 2019
Accounts in the data
780,073
What was exposed
dates of birth, email addresses, ethnicities, genders, names and physical attributes

The breach record cites a public report on zdnet.com.

02

What was exposed, and what does it mean for me?

  • Identity detailsdates of birth

    A date of birth is one of the facts a lender or a phone company uses to confirm who you are. It does not change, so it stays useful to a fraudster for years.

  • Your email addressemail addresses

    Expect messages that look like they come from this service or another one you use, written to get you to click a link or sign in on a fake page.

  • Other detailsethnicities, genders, names and physical attributes

    On their own these carry less risk, but they make a scam message sound more personal.

03

What should I do now?

In this order, for what this breach exposed.

1. In the US: freeze your credit at all three bureaus

  • Place a credit freeze with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. It is free to place and to lift, and it does not affect your credit score.
  • If you would rather not freeze, a fraud alert lasts one year. You ask one bureau and it tells the other two.
  • If someone uses your details, report it at IdentityTheft.gov to get a recovery plan.

2. In Canada: check your credit file and lock it

  • Get your credit report from Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada. Both give it free online.
  • In Ontario, both bureaus must offer a security freeze free of charge, and each bureau is a separate request.
  • If you live in Quebec or Ontario, Equifax Canada will lock your credit report at no charge, online, by phone or by mail. Ask TransUnion Canada separately.
  • If your details are used to open an account, call your bank, report it to both bureaus, report it to your local police and get a file number, then report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501).

3. Expect phishing

  • Be wary of messages that urge you to act fast, ask for personal details, or link to an address that is slightly off.
  • If a message might be genuine, do not use its links or phone numbers. Go to the site by typing its address yourself.
04

Is my address in it?

Enter your email address. We check that one address against monitored breach databases and show which breaches list it and what each exposed.

No account needed. We keep the address you check, when, and how many breach records it was found in, to prevent abuse, until you ask us to delete it. Privacy

Sources

Where does this come from?

Other breaches from 2017

All breaches Breaches from 2017 Breaches that exposed dates of birth