Ancestry Data Breach

What happened

In November 2015, an Ancestry service known as RootsWeb suffered a data breach. The breach was not discovered until late 2017 when a file containing almost 300k email addresses and plain text passwords was identified.

Exposed data

Recommended actions

• Change your Ancestry password immediately, and update it anywhere you reused the same password.
• Enable two-factor authentication on the affected account and on your critical services (email, banking).
• Watch for targeted phishing emails referencing Ancestry — attackers weaponise breach data quickly.
• Check whether your email address appears in this breach on haveibeenpwned.com.