Breach Database / START
Yes — START was breached.
- 7.5 million accounts affected
- Breach occurred 2021-06-01 · start.film
- Verified entry in the Have I Been Pwned catalog
What happened
In August 2022, news broke of an attack against the Russian streaming service "START". The incident led to the exposure of 44M records containing 7.4M unique email addresses. The impacted data also included the subscriber's country and password hash. START subsequently acknowledged the incident in a Telegram post and stated that the data dated back to 2021.
What data was exposed
- Email addresses
- Geographic locations
- Names
- Passwords
What to do right now
- Change your password for this service now. And change it anywhere you reused the same password — attackers try leaked passwords on other sites within hours ("credential stuffing").
- Turn on two-factor authentication. Even a leaked password is useless against an account protected by a second factor. Prefer an authenticator app over SMS.
- Expect convincing phishing emails. Attackers use breached details to write personalized emails. Be suspicious of any message referencing this service.
- Check your other accounts on Have I Been Pwned. Your email address may appear in other breaches you don't know about yet.
- Monitor the apps you use going forward. Clearly watches the breach record for the companies behind your apps and alerts you the moment one appears.
Breach data from Have I Been Pwned. Listing here means the service appears in the public breach record — not that your personal data was affected.