The 2013 iMesh.com Data Breach: What Was Exposed and When

In September 2013, iMesh.com, once a popular peer-to-peer file sharing service, suffered a significant data breach that would quietly linger for years before coming to light. The personal data of over 51 million users—including usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, and salted MD5 hashed passwords—was compromised. Though the breach itself occurred in 2013, the full scale wasn’t revealed until 2016 when the stolen data surfaced for sale on a well-known dark web marketplace. This event highlighted the lingering risks many users face when older internet services are breached, as well as the sometimes-delayed discovery of the true impact.

What Data Was Leaked in the iMesh.com Breach?

The attack led to the exposure of 51,310,727 iMesh user accounts. Key information included usernames, email addresses, the last IP address associated with each account, and passwords that were protected with salted MD5 hashes. While hashed, these passwords were still considered valuable to malicious actors, especially given the scale of the breach.

Timeline of Key Events

• September 2013: iMesh.com suffered a data breach affecting millions of users.
• 2013–2016: The breach remained largely undisclosed to the public, with few signs the dataset had spread widely.
• Mid-2016: The database containing the compromised user details began circulating for sale on a prominent dark web market, confirming the extent of the exposure.

How Many Users Were Impacted?

More than 51 million individual iMesh accounts were included in the breach, making it one of the largest incidents affecting a peer-to-peer sharing community. This large trove of personal information put millions at risk for account takeovers, spam, and other misuse, even years after they had last logged in to iMesh.

What Was iMesh.com?

iMesh.com was a widely used file-sharing service that allowed users to share music, videos, and other digital content with each other. Its popularity peaked during the 2000s, with millions joining the platform from around the world. Like many early internet communities, iMesh eventually shut down, but its user data lived on—making breaches like the 2013 incident especially notable for digital historians and security researchers.

FAQ About the iMesh.com Breach

What happened in the iMesh.com data breach?

In September 2013, iMesh.com’s user database was compromised, leaking data for over 51 million users. The breach included email addresses, usernames, IP addresses, and salted MD5 hashed passwords, later appearing on a dark web marketplace in 2016.

How many users were affected by the iMesh.com breach?

The breach exposed over 51 million user accounts, making it a major incident in the history of file-sharing community data breaches.

What information was exposed in the iMesh.com hack?

Usernames, email addresses, last associated IP addresses, and hashed passwords were included in the leaked dataset, putting a large number of former users at risk for potential misuse.

Who was behind the iMesh.com breach?

The identity of the attackers responsible for the iMesh.com breach remains unknown. The data surfaced for sale on a dark web marketplace several years after the breach, but no specific hacker group has been definitively linked to the incident.

How can I check if I'm in the iMesh.com breach?

You can check if your information was part of the iMesh.com breach by utilizing the DeHashed search engine.