• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechHacking

If You Ever Had a Myspace Account, This Hack May Affect You

By
David Meyer
David Meyer
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
David Meyer
David Meyer
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 30, 2016, 6:10 AM ET
Myspace
MyspaceDavid Meyer

Update: Time Inc. confirmed the breach of MySpace in a statement Tuesday morning.

The details of millions of Myspace users seem to have been stolen in yet another major hacking incident, with their passwords being vulnerable to decryption—and apparently on sale now.

Yes, this musically-inclined social network may not be the hit it once was, but if you tend to reuse your passwords across sites and over the years, here’s yet another reason to switch them up.

The hack was reported on Friday by LeakedSource, the same searchable repository of hacked account information that recently added the details of up to 167 million LinkedIn (LNKD) users.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

According to Motherboard, a notorious hacker called Peace has put the Myspace data up for sale in an underground market, for the price of 6 bitcoins (around $3,200 at the time of writing). Peace did the same with the LinkedIn data, albeit at a slightly lower price.

There were 360 million user records in the Myspace stash, but only 111 million had usernames. (At its peak, around eight years ago, Myspace reportedly had 75.9 million regular users.) Other information in the records included email addresses and one or two passwords—the total number of passwords was just over 427 million.

I confirmed with LeakedSource that the database contains my old Myspace login details. The site gave me my unencrypted Myspace password (which I have now changed), showing how easily they were able to remove its protections.

“The methods Myspace used for storing passwords are not what internet standards propose,” a LeakedSource blog post read, describing the encryption as “very weak.”

The site’s administrators told me they know of “dozens of people” who have this dataset.

For more on hacking, watch our video.

They think it dates back years, but it’s not clear when the apparent hack took place, or who was responsible. LeakedSource’s operators deny hacking or condoning hacking, and say someone using the alias “Tessa88” passed them the database.

As security researcher Troy Hunt noted, indications arose a couple months back of people receiving spam emails to accounts they only ever used for Myspace:

This is interesting, note the date: https://t.co/6WKq620ytu

— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) May 27, 2016

Interestingly, LeakedSource suggested that more than 850,000 of the accounts seem to have been automatically generated—they all shared the same password, “homelesspa,” and all had similar email addresses.

https://twitter.com/LeakedSource/status/736332464881274880

As you can probably guess, the most popular real passwords in the stash are “password1,” “abc123” and “123456.” People, don’t do this.

Myspace itself had not provided any comment at the time of writing. Fortune‘s proprietor, Time Incorporated (TIME), bought Myspace parent Viant Technology earlier this year.

This article was updated to note that the author had confirmed his details were in the leaked database.

About the Author
By David Meyer
LinkedIn icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

lancaster
AIschools
Two private school boys get probation for using AI to create 350 fake nudes of their classmates
By Mark Scolforo and The Associated PressMarch 25, 2026
6 hours ago
melania
PoliticsWhite House
Enter Melania Trump, escorted by humanoid robot: ‘I’m Figure 03, a humanoid built for the United States of America’
By Darlene Superville and The Associated PressMarch 25, 2026
6 hours ago
bernie
AICongress
Bernie Sanders and AOC launch bill to ban new data-center construction
By Matthew Daly and The Associated PressMarch 25, 2026
7 hours ago
Big TechSocial Media
A court just ruled that tech addiction is real—and dangerous. It could be Meta and YouTube’s Big Tobacco moment
By Kristin StollerMarch 25, 2026
7 hours ago
Warner gestures
AIAmerican Politics
New college grad unemployment will spike to 35% in 2 years, senator warns, forcing ‘Dario, Sam’ to quit AI fear-mongering
By Jacqueline MunisMarch 25, 2026
9 hours ago
Big TechMeta
Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark child social media harm case, ordered to pay $3 million—with punitive damages still to come
By Kaitlyn Huamani, Barbara Ortutay and The Associated PressMarch 25, 2026
9 hours ago

Most Popular

Magazine
The youngest-ever female CEO of a Fortune 500 company is fighting Trump's cuts to keep Medicaid strong
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
2 days ago
Commentary
The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it
By Fortune EditorsMarch 23, 2026
2 days ago
Success
Palantir’s billionaire CEO says only two kinds of people will succeed in the AI era: trade workers — ‘or you’re neurodivergent’
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
1 day ago
Success
The job market is so bad that ‘reverse recruiters’ are charging $1,500 a month just to help people look for jobs
By Fortune EditorsMarch 25, 2026
20 hours ago
Success
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon says remote work breeds ‘rope-a-dope politics’ and stunts young workers’ growth
By Fortune EditorsMarch 25, 2026
12 hours ago
Success
JPMorgan has started monitoring the keystrokes, video calls, and meetings of its junior investment bankers—and they say it's for employee well-being
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.