ReverbNation 2014 Data Breach
Platform · Music promotion and artist tools · Creator services platform · Global
ReverbNation Music Promotion Platform Breach (2014, Disclosed 2016): 7 Million User Email Addresses & Passwords Exposed
Music promotion and distribution platform.
Confirmed · ObscureIQ Intelligence
Breach Risk Index i
8/100
Lower riskHigher risk
Lower: limited current risk based on data value and recency.
Data Sensitivity i
StandardExposed data is largely lower-sensitivity. Standard identity-protection precautions are advised.
7.0MRecords
2014Year
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.
Breach Summary
In January 2014, ReverbNation suffered a data breach that was not identified until September 2015. An individual illegally accessed a ReverbNation vendor’s systems and reached a backup of the user database, exposing over 7 million accounts. Confirmed-circulating data comprised email addresses and passwords stored as salted SHA-1 hashes. No credit-card data was accessed.
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…
7.0M records analyzed
About ReverbNation
ReverbNation is an online platform that helps independent musicians and artists build their careers through promotion, distribution, and fan-engagement tools.
Why They Hold Your Data
Creator-service platforms collect artist identity, contact details, fan engagement records, music-promotion activity, account data, and payment-adjacent or subscription records across music-marketing workflows.
Recent Developments
ReverbNation notified users in 2015 after discovering the breach, and the individual responsible was later identified and charged.
Data Points Exposed
2 verified field types
Email Address
Password High
Breach Impact
Salted SHA-1 slows but does not prevent recovery of weak passwords, exposing reused credentials to stuffing attacks; the musician-focused user base may face targeted phishing.
Exploitation & Downstream Threats
• Credential stuffing against reused passwords across other platforms | • Targeted phishing campaigns using exposed email addresses
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 the main risk is credible impersonation and enrichment of existing exposure.
What You Should Do
- Reset any reused passwords and enable MFA on email first, then financial accounts.
- Do not use unofficial 'am I affected' lookups; several are themselves harvesting operations.
How ObscureIQ Can Help
- Corpus confirmation: determine whether and where the principal (plus household and staff) appear in this dataset and which specific fields are exposed for them.
- Exposure mapping: cross-reference the exposed identifiers against broker-available data to size and prioritize the principal's wider footprint.
- ThreatWatch tuned to this incident's identifiers and misuse pattern (impersonation and targeting patterns, not generic credential monitoring).
Protect Yourself
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