Adapt 2018 Data Breach
ObscureIQ Breach Intelligence
Low SeverityAggregated / marketing data
Adapt.io B2B Contact Database Breach: 153M Professional Records Exposed
B2B contact and company data provider.
Verified by ObscureIQ Intelligence
34/100Breach Risk Index
10Data Value
25Market Recency
512dSince Breach
Breach Intelligence Summary
Entity: Adapt · Actor: Unknown · Sources: 5 references
Attack: Misconfiguration
Profile: Data Broker · B2B contact and company data aggregation · Sales intelligence platform and lead data provider · USA
Timeline: Breach (2018-11-05) · Indexed (Dec 01, 2024) · Year (2018)
Exposure: 153.4M records · 7 fields: Email Address, Employer, Full Name, Job Information, Phone Number, Physical Address, Social Media Profile
Status: Confirmed
Executive Summary
Adapt.io, a B2B sales-intelligence company that aggregates and sells business contact data, left a database publicly exposed without any password protection in November 2018. Security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered the unprotected server and found it contained over 9.3 million unique records. Adapt did not respond when contacted about the exposure. The exposed records included names, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, job titles, employer information, social media profiles, and company attributes such as organization size and revenue. Most affected individuals had no direct relationship with Adapt and were likely unaware their information had been collected. Because the data was already structured for sales outreach, it required no further processing to be weaponized. No regulatory action or breach notification has been documented in connection with this incident. For those affected, the structured nature of the data creates lasting risk. Attackers can use it to craft convincing spearphishing emails, impersonate executives, and build detailed profiles for business email compromise schemes. People who receive unexpected or highly personalized business outreach should treat it with caution.
ObscureIQ assessment: Exposure enables spearphishing, executive impersonation, business email compromise, and large-scale prospect targeting. Because the data is already structured for outreach, it is immediately useful for abuse.
Breach Impact
The 2018 breach exposed the risks of the B2B contact-data industry in concentrated form. HIBP says an unprotected database hosted by Adapt exposed more than 9.3 million unique records containing names, employers, job titles, contact details, and employer attributes such as company size and revenue, and it notes that no response was received from Adapt when contacted. That made the dataset immediately useful for phishing, business email compromise pretexting, executive targeting, lead-list enrichment, and broader corporate identity mapping.
About Adapt
Adapt.io is a B2B sales-intelligence and lead-data company that provides business contact records, company information, prospecting tools, enrichment services, and API access for sales and marketing teams. Its public-facing product is built around helping users identify decision-makers, verify work contact details, and feed contact intelligence into outbound and revenue workflows.
Why They Hold Your Data
B2B sales intelligence platforms aggregate business contact records, company information, job titles, emails, phone numbers, and employer-linked identifiers for lead generation and outbound sales targeting.
Recent Developments
Adapt remains an active lead-intelligence platform and continues to market a large global contact database, enrichment tooling, browser extension workflows, and Data OS API products for sales teams. Current public materials emphasize verified B2B data, prospecting automation, integrations, and broad international coverage rather than any major shift away from the core brokered-contact model.
Data Points Exposed
7 verified field types
Email Address
Employer
Full Name High
Job Information
Phone Number
Physical Address High
Social Media Profile
Field names are shown in full for clarity and search visibility. Canonical machine keys are emitted only in this page’s structured data.
Exploitation & Downstream Threats
Threat Activity:High
Primary downstream threats:
- SIM swap attacks where phone numbers are present
- Targeted phishing campaigns using exposed email addresses
- Doxxing risk from physical address exposure
- Employment-based social engineering using job and employer data
- Social media account targeting and impersonation
Threat vectors:
- Phishing, credential stuffing & account takeover
- Business Email Compromise seeding
- Name-based social engineering
- Vishing & authority impersonation
- SIM swapping, vishing & SMS phishing
- Physical stalking, mail fraud & identity verification
- Account impersonation & social graph harvesting
Recommended Actions
If you believe your information may be included:
Enable MFA Everywhere
Turn on multi-factor authentication on email first, then financial accounts.
Report & Recover
If you spot misuse, start an official recovery plan and report fraud.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened in the Adapt breach?▾
Adapt.io, a B2B sales-intelligence company that aggregates and sells business contact data, left a database publicly exposed without any password protection in November 2018. Security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered the unprotected server and found it contained over 9.3 million unique records.…
What data was exposed?▾
Verified fields include Email Address, Employer, Full Name, Job Information, Phone Number, Physical Address, Social Media Profile.
What should I do if I was affected?▾
Change reused passwords, enable MFA, and (if identity or financial data is involved) freeze your credit and monitor your accounts.
Sources & References
Every claim on this page is traceable. This breach draws on:
Breach Index
Breach Index
Cross-source
9ghz
Cross-source
BreachForums_Official_Index
ObscureIQ Intelligence
ObscureIQ proprietary analysis
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