Avvo Data Breach

What happened?

In approximately December 2019, an alleged data breach of the lawyer directory service Avvo was published to an online hacking forum and used in an extortion scam (it's possible the exposure dates back earlier than that). The data contained 4.1M unique email addresses alongside SHA-1 hashes, most likely representing user passwords. Multiple attempts at contacting Avvo over the course of a week were unsuccessful and the authenticity of the data was eventually verified with common Avvo and HIBP subscribers.

When did it happen?

The breach date in the public record is December 17, 2019. The record was added to the catalogue on April 15, 2022 and last updated there on April 15, 2022.

What information was reported as exposed?

• Email addresses
• Passwords

These are incident-level categories. The record does not prove that every category was exposed for every affected person.

Who may be affected?

This record may be relevant to people who had an account or other relationship with Avvo or used avvo.com around December 17, 2019. A catalogue entry does not establish that every customer was affected or that every listed data category applied to each person. Compare the record with an official notice addressed to you.

What should you do?

Choose actions that match the information involved. If you find signs that someone is using your identity, the Federal Trade Commission provides a personal recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov.