Iron March Data Breach
The 2017 Iron March data breach involved the unauthorized acquisition of the now-defunct extremist forum's database and its public release in November 2019. The copy reviewed by researchers extended to activity near the site's November 2017 shutdown.
Exposed Data Types
6- Usernames
- Email addresses
- IP addresses
- Dates of birth
- Forum posts
- Private messages
About This Breach
What happened at Iron March?
The published SQL database contained forum account records, public content, and private messages exchanged between members. Bellingcat, ZDNET, and the Guardian independently examined the same event.
The exact date of unauthorized access was not made public. The catalog therefore uses November 2017 at month precision; November 6, 2019 is the public-release date, not the breach date.
What information was exposed?
The sources confirm usernames, registration email addresses, IP addresses, date-of-birth fields, forum posts, and private messages. The material may also enable sensitive inferences about individuals' political or ideological associations.
How many accounts were affected?
ZDNET reported 3,548 registered profiles in the database. This figure represents account profiles, not the number of forum posts or private messages.
What should affected people do?
People who used the same email address elsewhere should review the security of those accounts and change any reused password. They should also consider that old private messages could be used for identification, harassment, or targeted fraud.
Verification and editorial method
LeakData compares the incident name, date, affected-record count, and exposed data types with accessible sources. Unverified fields are not presented as facts, and records are updated when new evidence becomes available.
Report missing or incorrect information