TaiLieu tailieu.vn TaiLieu 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.
In November 2019 the Vietnamese education site TaiLieu allegedly suffered a breach exposing 7.3 million customer records. Have I Been Pwned lists names, usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, genders, locations and passwords stored as unsalted MD5 hashes. TaiLieu did not respond when contacted.
View all 13,118 breaches- Breach date
- 24 Nov 2019
- Affected
- 7,327,477
- Data exposed
- Dates of birth, Email addresses, Genders, Geographic locations, Names, Passwords, Phone numbers, Usernames
- Verified
- Yes
- Last updated
Source: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
What happened
TaiLieu (tailieu.vn) is a Vietnamese education website. In November 2019 it allegedly suffered a data breach that exposed 7.3 million customer records. The data was shared on a hacking forum and later passed to Have I Been Pwned, which added it in May 2020.
TaiLieu did not respond when Have I Been Pwned contacted it about the incident.
Sources checked: haveibeenpwned.com, consumer.ftc.gov
Last verified against the official page:
What was exposed
Have I Been Pwned lists names, usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, genders, geographic locations and passwords. The passwords were stored as unsalted MD5 hashes, a weak method that lets attackers recover many passwords quickly.
That combination matters. If you reused your TaiLieu password elsewhere, someone could try it on your other accounts. The phone number and date of birth also make phishing and text scams more convincing.
What you can do
Anyone who signed up to TaiLieu should assume their email address and password were part of the leak. Because the site never confirmed the incident, there is no company notice with extra guidance, so the advice below follows the FTC.
Change the password on any account that shared it, and use a unique password for each site. The leaked data itself can't be recalled, so the goal is to make it useless to whoever holds it.
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Change your password, and every reuse of it
The FTC says that if a company loses your password, you should change it right away and change it anywhere you reused it. Start with your email. A password manager helps. See the FTC's guidance.
- 2
Turn on two-factor authentication
Use an authenticator app or security key where possible. The FTC notes that text and email codes are the least secure option.
- 3
Expect phishing and text scams
Phone numbers and dates of birth were exposed. Don't click links or call numbers in unexpected messages. See the FTC's guide to phishing.
- 4
Check which other breaches include you
Run a free Serus scan to see whether your email or phone number appears in this and other breaches.
Frequently asked
Was I affected by the TaiLieu data breach?
Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned or run a free Serus scan.
What was exposed?
Names, usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, genders, geographic locations and passwords stored as unsalted MD5 hashes.
Should I change my password?
Yes, if you used TaiLieu. Change it anywhere you reused it, as the FTC advises.
Sources
Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll re-check it.
