What Happened
In 2023 (with the incident dated February 28, 2022, by multiple sources and described as spanning early 2022-2023), ExploreTalent.com, an online platform connecting actors, models, and creatives with casting opportunities, suffered a major data breach when attackers accessed its databases and stole approximately 5.7-5.8 million user records, including 5.4 million unique email addresses, names, phone numbers, physical addresses, usernames, and plaintext passwords. The stolen data was publicly posted to a hacking forum in July 2024, exposing users to risks like phishing, identity theft, and account takeovers, though no specific attribution to hackers was identified and ExploreTalent issued no public response on remediation. This event is distinct from a separate August 2024 breach involving a vulnerable API that exposed 8.9-11.4 million email addresses.
