Zynga

What Happened

In September 2019, game developer Zynga (the creator of Words with Friends) suffered a data breach. The incident exposed 173M unique email addresses alongside usernames and passwords.

How to Stay Safe

1. Change the password on your email account
Since this leak exposed email addresses, updating your email password will reduce the risk of someone trying to access your inbox. This is especially important if you use the same password on other websites. 

Follow one of our step-by-step guides depending on which email provider you use:

How to Change Your Gmail Password

How to Change Your Yahoo Password

How to Change Your AOL Password

How to Change Your iCloud Password

How to Change Your Hotmail or Outlook Password

How to Change Your Email Password (for other Email Accounts)

Then, turn on Two-Step Verification while you're there, so your account is harder to access even if your password is compromised again in the future. You’ll also find how to do that by clicking the links above.

2. Change your Words with Friends password
Also, change the password on any other account where you may have reused it.

Why This Breach Matters

Even though this breach happened back in 2019, leaked data doesn't just expire. It keeps getting bought, sold, and reused by scammers. 

And even if you've never used this exact site before, your email may have still ended up in it through a partner, data broker, or another service behind the scenes. 

If you've ever reused this password anywhere else, it's worth taking a minute to secure it now.