Altenen altenens.is Altenen data breach: what happened and what to do
In June 2022 the carding site Altenen was breached. About 1.3 million email addresses, usernames, bcrypt password hashes and cryptocurrency wallet addresses were exposed. Have I Been Pwned added it in November 2024.
View all 13,177 breaches- Breach date
- 24 Jun 2022
- Affected
- 1,267,701
- Data exposed
- Cryptocurrency wallet addresses, Email addresses, Passwords, Usernames
- Verified
- Yes
- Last updated
Source: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
Reviewed by Anthon Wansland
Head of Product & Co-Founder
Serus is a privacy company with paid tools to find and remove your personal data. This page is free and based on official sources.
What happened
Altenen was a website built around credit card fraud ("carding"). In June 2022 it suffered a data breach. The stolen data was later redistributed inside a much larger collection of leaked data, and Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) added it to its database on 5 November 2024.
What was exposed
HIBP lists about 1.3 million unique email addresses. Each record can include a username, a bcrypt password hash and a cryptocurrency wallet address. HIBP's data classes for this breach are email addresses, usernames, passwords and cryptocurrency wallet addresses.
A bcrypt hash is a scrambled form of a password, not the password itself. Bcrypt is deliberately slow to crack, so a long, unique password protected this way is hard to recover. A short or common one is still at risk, because attackers can guess it and check the guess against the hash.
What it means for you
If your email address is in this breach, three things are worth knowing.
- Password reuse is the real risk. If you used the same password on Altenen and somewhere else, someone who cracks the hash can try it on those other accounts. That is called credential stuffing.
- Your email links to a username and a wallet address. Anyone holding the data can connect those to your email. If you have never used a cryptocurrency wallet address with this email, that part doesn't apply to you.
- Phishing is likelier. An email address in a breach tends to attract targeted phishing. Treat unexpected messages about your accounts or crypto with suspicion, and don't click links in them.
Why a breach this old still matters
The breach happened in 2022 but only reached HIBP in November 2024, after the data turned up inside a larger corpus. That gap is common. Leaked data keeps circulating for years, so an address that was exposed once can be tried against new accounts long after the original site is gone. If you used the same email and password on other sites in 2022 and never changed them, those accounts are the ones to check first.
Email addresses and usernames also help criminals build a profile. A username reused across forums, games and shops lets someone link separate accounts to one person, even when the email differs.
The company's response
Altenen was a criminal marketplace, not a regular company, so there was no breach notice, customer support page or free monitoring offer. What we know comes from HIBP's entry, which marks the breach as verified.
Check your own exposure
Search your email on Have I Been Pwned to confirm whether it appears here. Serus also monitors breach databases and the dark web for your email and passwords and alerts you when they show up. It can't remove data from a breach, but it tells you what to change.
Sources checked: haveibeenpwned.com, cisa.gov, consumer.ftc.gov
Last verified against the official page:
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Change any password you reused
If you ever used the same password as on Altenen anywhere else, change it on those accounts first. Use a different, long password for each account, ideally from a password manager.
- 2
Turn on two-factor authentication
Turn on multi-factor authentication on your email, banking and exchange accounts. CISA recommends it for every account that offers it, and an app or security key is stronger than SMS.
- 3
Expect phishing that mentions your accounts
Be careful with unexpected emails or texts about passwords, crypto or account problems. Don't click the links. Go to the company's site yourself. Report phishing to reportfraud.ftc.gov.
- 4
Check whether your email is in this and other breaches
Run a free Serus scan to see which breaches expose your email or phone, and get alerts if new ones appear.
Timeline
-
The breach happened
-
Added to Have I Been Pwned
Frequently asked
Was I affected by the Altenen breach?
HIBP lists about 1.3 million email addresses. Search your email on Have I Been Pwned to see if yours is among them.
What was exposed in the Altenen breach?
Email addresses, usernames, bcrypt password hashes and cryptocurrency wallet addresses, per HIBP.
Should I change my password?
Change it if you reused your Altenen password anywhere else. Bcrypt hashes are slow to crack, but weak passwords can still be guessed.
Sources
Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll re-check it.
