Impact & Downstream Threats
This breach carries high risk due to the nature of exposed data fields and the scale of affected records.
- Credential stuffing against reused passwords across other platforms
- Targeted phishing campaigns using exposed email addresses
Breach Intelligence
Executive Summary
In October 2017, the blog commenting service Disqus announced they'd suffered a data breach. The breach dated back to July 2012 but wasn't identified until years later when the data finally surfaced. The breach contained over 17.5 million unique email addresses and usernames. Users who created logins on Disqus had salted SHA1 hashes of passwords whilst users who logged in via social providers only had references to those accounts.
About Disqus
Comment hosting platform for websites.
Data Points Exposed
Dark Web Verification
Status: Confirmed
- Dataset containing approximately 27.8M records identified in breach intelligence sources.
- The data is indexed and searchable across breach notification platforms.
Recommended Actions
⚠️ Do not assume this is low sensitivity.
Non-clients may request a breach impact review.
Frequently Asked Questions
In July 2012, Disqus experienced a data breach that exposed approximately 27.8M records containing personal information.
The exposed data includes fields such as email address, password, username.
Approximately 27.8M records were affected based on current breach intelligence.
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ObscureIQ Advisory
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- A public-facing individual
- A high-profile executive
- A customer of Disqus
- Or concerned about credential reuse
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