LiveJournal Data Breach

What happened?

In mid-2019, news broke of an alleged LiveJournal data breach . This followed multiple reports of credential abuse against Dreamwidth beginning in 2018 , a fork of LiveJournal with a significant crossover in user base. The breach allegedly dates back to 2017 and contains 26M unique usernames and email addresses (both of which have been confirmed to exist on LiveJournal) alongside plain text passwords. An archive of the data was subsequently shared on a popular hacking forum in May 2020 and redistributed broadly.

When did it happen?

The breach date in the public record is January 1, 2017. The record was added to the catalogue on May 26, 2020 and last updated there on May 26, 2020.

What information was reported as exposed?

• Email addresses
• Passwords
• Usernames

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 LiveJournal or used livejournal.com around January 1, 2017. 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.