Description

A data breach involving DemandScience (formerly Pure Incubation), a B2B demand generation platform, has led to the exposure of business contact information for 122 million individuals. The breach, which has been circulating since February 2024, occurred after a hacker named 'KryptonZambie' began selling 132.8 million records on Breach Forums, claiming they were stolen from an exposed system belonging to Demand Science. DemandScience, a company that aggregates business data for marketers and advertisers, collects information such as full names, physical and email addresses, phone numbers, job titles, and social media links. Initially, the company denied any breach, stating its systems were secure and there was no evidence of a hack. Despite these assurances, in August 2024, KryptonZambie made the dataset available for free, prompting further investigation. Security researcher Troy Hunt confirmed the authenticity of the data and revealed that a person affected by the breach had contacted DemandScience. The company acknowledged that the exposed data originated from a decommissioned system that had been retired two years ago, but emphasized that its current systems were not affected. The full dataset, which includes 122 million unique email addresses, has been added to the Have I Been Pwned database, and affected individuals will be notified. This breach underscores the risks associated with large-scale data aggregation and the importance of securing sensitive business contact information to prevent exploitation by malicious actors.