Was I in the Web Hosting Talk breach?
Web Hosting Talk is an online forum about web hosting. Its breach happened in July 2016 and exposed 515,149 accounts. It included passwords, email addresses, IP addresses (where you connected from) and usernames. If you had an account there by July 2016, 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.
What happened?
Web Hosting Talk, an online forum, was breached in July 2016 and the data was then put up for sale. The forum ran on vBulletin. The user records held usernames, IP addresses, email addresses and passwords hashed with salted MD5.
- Organisation
- Web Hosting Talk, an online forum about web hosting (webhostingtalk.com)
- When it happened
- July 2016
- Added to monitored breach databases
- 17 December 2025
- Accounts in the data
- 515,149
- What was exposed
- passwords, email addresses, IP addresses (where you connected from) and usernames
What was exposed, and what does it mean for me?
- Your passwordpasswords
The password for this account was in the data, either as written or in a stored form that can often be reversed when the password is short or common. Anyone with the list can try it on your email, bank and shopping accounts.
- 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 detailsIP addresses (where you connected from) and usernames
On their own these carry less risk, but they make a scam message sound more personal.
What should I do now?
In this order, for what this breach exposed.
1. Change the password, and every reuse of it
- Change your Web Hosting Talk password if the account still exists. Then change the same password on every other account where you used it, starting with your email.
- Use a different password for each account. A password manager makes that practical: it creates long passwords and remembers them for you.
- Turn on a second sign-in step, such as a code from an app or a security key, for your email, bank and social accounts. Your email comes first, because every password reset goes to it.
2. 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.
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
Where does this come from?
- The breach record in monitored breach databases: dates, account count and what was exposed. What happened is in our own words.Read 14 October 2026
- CISA: Use strong passwordsRead 14 October 2026
- Get Cyber Safe (Government of Canada): Password managersRead 14 October 2026
- CISA: More than a password (multi-factor authentication)Read 14 October 2026
- Get Cyber Safe (Government of Canada): Multi-factor authenticationRead 14 October 2026
- CISA: Recognize and report phishingRead 14 October 2026
- Get Cyber Safe (Government of Canada): Fact sheet on phishingRead 14 October 2026