Experian (2015) Data Breach

What happened?

In September 2015, the US based credit bureau and consumer data broker Experian suffered a data breach that impacted 15 million customers who had applied for financing from T-Mobile. An alleged data breach was subsequently circulated containing personal information including names, physical and email addresses, birth dates and various other personal attributes. Multiple Have I Been Pwned subscribers verified portions of the data as being accurate, but the actual source of it was inconclusive therefor this breach has been flagged as "unverified".

When did it happen?

The breach date in the public record is September 16, 2015. The record was added to the catalogue on September 6, 2016 and last updated there on November 22, 2020.

What information was reported as exposed?

• Credit status information
• Dates of birth
• Email addresses
• Ethnicities
• Family structure
• Genders
• Home ownership statuses
• Income levels
• IP addresses
• Names
• Phone numbers
• Physical addresses
• Purchasing habits

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 Experian (2015) or used experian.com around September 16, 2015. 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.