MEO 2020 Data Breach

MEO 2020 Data Breach

Retail & Commerce / E-commerce

MEO 2020 Data Breach

A zealand based face mask company.

Confirmed · ObscureIQ Intelligence
Breach Risk Index i
15/100
Lower riskHigher risk
Lower: limited current risk based on data value and recency.
Data Sensitivity i
Standard
Exposed data is largely lower-sensitivity. Standard identity-protection precautions are advised.
8KRecords
2020Year

The Breach Risk Index (BRI) is a proprietary 0–100 score rating how dangerous a breach is right now, based on how recently the data has been circulating on the dark web and how valuable it is to attackers.

Crucial data exposed
AddressPhysical address
Classification Tags
Retail & CommerceE-commerceUsers2020

Breach Summary

In early 2023, a corpus of data sourced from the New Zealand based face mask company MEO was discovered. Dating back to December 2020, the data contained over 8k customer records including names, addresses, phone numbers and passwords stored as MD5 WordPress hashes. MEO did not respond to multiple attempts to report the breach.

Full threat analysis, exploitation vectors, and principal guidance below.

10 additional sections · verified field analysis · defensive doctrine

Querying breach corpus…
Cross-referencing exposed field types…
Resolving threat-actor attribution…
Compiling principal risk advisory…

8K records analyzed

About MEO

MEO is a zealand based face mask company.

Why They Hold Your Data

MEO is a zealand based face mask company. Services like this typically hold email addresses, names, passwords, phone numbers, physical addresses, transaction history, usernames through account registration and normal operations.

Recent Developments

The MEO dataset circulated publicly; treat as part of the standing exposure landscape.

Data Points Exposed

7 verified field types
Email Address
Full Name
Password High
Phone Number
Physical address High
Transaction History
Username

Breach Impact

The exposure of credentials alongside personal data heightened account-takeover and reuse risk for MEO users and drew scrutiny of its data protection.

Exploitation & Downstream Threats

• Credential stuffing against reused passwords across other platforms | • SIM swap attacks where phone numbers are present | • Targeted phishing campaigns using exposed email addresses | • Doxxing risk from physical address exposure

Principal Risk Advisory

What this means for a principal

A consumer-service breach: contact and account data supports phishing, account takeover and profile enrichment. For a high-profile principal this is targeting-grade, not merely identity-theft-grade: the combination lets an adversary locate, impersonate, or pressure the principal with little additional work.

What You Should Do

  1. Treat the home address as exposed: review mail and package handling and physical-security routines, and brief household staff to verify unusual requests.
  2. Reset any reused passwords and enable MFA on email first, then financial accounts.
  3. Guard against SIM-swap and vishing: add a carrier port-out PIN and verify any 'support' calls independently.
  4. Do not use unofficial 'am I affected' lookups; several are themselves harvesting operations.

How ObscureIQ Can Help

  1. Corpus confirmation: determine whether and where the principal (plus household and staff) appear in this dataset and which specific fields are exposed for them.
  2. Exposure mapping and footprint neutralization: cross-reference against broker-available data and suppress still-removable elements, prioritizing address and phone, since this record re-seeds broker networks.
  3. ThreatWatch tuned to this incident's identifiers and misuse pattern (impersonation and targeting patterns, not generic credential monitoring).

Protect Yourself

Check If You're Affected

Enter your email to check whether your data appears in this breach. We’ll send a 6-digit code to confirm it’s your address.

Get Free Breach Alerts

Be the first to know when new breaches are disclosed. Free forever — confirm your email with a 6-digit code.

High-Risk? Get an Exposure Audit

Executives, public figures, and high-visibility operators can receive tailored exposure intelligence and hardening guidance.

Request Consultation