MediaWorks Data Breach

What happened?

In March 2024, millions of rows of data from the New Zealand media company MediaWorks was publicly posted to a popular hacking forum . The incident exposed 163k unique email addresses provided by visitors who filled out online competitions and included names, physical addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, genders and the responses to questions in the competition. Some victims of the breach subsequently received ransom demands requesting payment to have their data deleted.

When did it happen?

The breach date in the public record is March 15, 2023. The record was added to the catalogue on March 22, 2024 and last updated there on March 22, 2024.

What information was reported as exposed?

• Dates of birth
• Email addresses
• Genders
• Phone numbers
• Physical addresses

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 MediaWorks or used mediaworks.co.nz around March 15, 2023. 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.