Ge.tt ge.tt Ge.tt data breach: what happened and what to do
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.
The file sharing platform Ge.tt was breached in May 2017. Almost 2.5 million email addresses were exposed with names, social media profile identifiers and SHA256 password hashes.
View all 13,118 breaches- Breach date
- 4 May 2017
- Affected
- 2,481,121
- Data exposed
- Email addresses, Names, Passwords, Social media profiles
- Verified
- Yes
- Last updated
Source: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
What happened
Ge.tt is a file sharing platform. It suffered a data breach in May 2017. The data later turned up for sale on a dark web marketplace in February 2019, alongside a batch of other breaches.
What was exposed
Have I Been Pwned lists almost 2.5 million unique email addresses, plus names, social media profile identifiers and passwords stored as SHA256 hashes.
What that means for you
SHA256 is a fast hash, which means attackers can test huge numbers of guesses per second. Weak and common passwords from this breach should be treated as exposed. If you used the same password anywhere else, an attacker can try it there (known as credential stuffing).
The breach is old, but the data was resold years later, so it can still circulate. Your email plus your name is enough for a phishing message that mentions file sharing or a document someone sent you.
No passwords were stored in plain text, and Have I Been Pwned lists no financial data or addresses for this breach. That limits the damage, but email addresses are the key to password resets on your other accounts, so it's worth locking those down. If you haven't touched the account in years, consider deleting it.
Sources checked: haveibeenpwned.com
Last verified against the official page:
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Change the password, and every place you reused it
Set a new, unique password on Ge.tt first. Then change it on any other account that shares the old one, starting with your email. A password manager makes unique passwords painless.
- 2
Turn on two-factor authentication
Use an authenticator app on your email, bank and shopping accounts. A leaked password alone then won't get anyone in.
- 3
Be careful with 'shared file' emails
A fake message that says someone shared a file with you is a classic lure. Don't open attachments or links you weren't expecting.
- 4
Check whether your email is in this and other breaches
Run a free scan at serus.ai. Serus monitors breach databases and the dark web and alerts you when your email or phone number shows up. It can't remove data from a breach, but it tells you which accounts to secure first.
Timeline
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The breach happened
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Added to Have I Been Pwned
Frequently asked
Was I affected by the Ge.tt breach?
If you used Ge.tt before 2017, possibly. Search your email on Have I Been Pwned or run a free Serus scan.
What was exposed in the Ge.tt breach?
Email addresses, names, social media profile identifiers and SHA256 password hashes.
Should I change my password?
Yes, if you reused a Ge.tt password anywhere. Old breaches keep getting reused.
Sources
- Have I Been Pwned: Gett
- Have I Been Pwned: Ge.tt Data Breach · haveibeenpwned.com
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