MSPAForums Data Breach
The 2016 MSPAForums data breach occurred in March 2016 when the official community and discussion forums of MSPAForums (mspaforums.com), the online hub for Andrew Hussie's popular webcomic phenomena Homestuck and MS Paint Adventures, were compromised and leaked online.
Exposed Data Types
5- Email addresses
- Usernames
- Passwords
- Password salts
- IP addresses
About This Breach
What information was affected in the MSPAForums incident?
The extracted vBulletin forum credential export (MSPAforums.com 180k.txt) contained account records for fandom participants. Compromised records for 180,680 unique registered accounts include:
- Account Identifiers: Member usernames.
- Contact Credentials: Canonical email addresses.
- Authentication Data: Passwords hashed using MD5 with cryptographic salt strings.
- Network Identifiers: Registration and connection IP addresses.
How many accounts were affected?
Rigorous RFC canonical parsing and deduplication across 180,930 lines confirmed 180,680 unique valid email addresses.
Technical analysis and security risks
The dump originated from a vBulletin discussion forum. Salted MD5 hashes are susceptible to offline GPU dictionary attacks. Given high credential reuse rates among fandom community members, exposed credentials facilitate credential stuffing attacks across external platforms.
Recommended actions for affected users
Community members who maintained an account on MSPAForums should:
- Immediately update passwords on other services where identical credentials might still be active.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible.
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.
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