Plex Reports Data Breach, So It's Time To Change Your Password
Plex streaming platform has been a game-changer for the past decade. Even though it's not as popular as Netflix, Plex offers free ad-supported TV shows, movies, and TV channels on its streaming platform. But what makes Plex convenient for most of its 20 million users is that they can stream media files stored on their laptops or smartphones with other devices that support the app. Of course, you can also share your personal collection of media files with your friends, or stream movies and TV shows saved on your laptop to your smart TV using Plex.
Another cool feature of Plex is that it shows users what's trending on all the popular streaming services — you could use it to find what to watch on Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Prime Video. But not everything is rosy for the company at the moment, as revealed by an email that was sent to its users today explaining the problem and why you should change your account password.
Emails, passwords, and usernames have been compromised
In an email sent to its users this morning, Plex says that an unnamed third party has breached its data. "It does appear that a third-party was able to access a limited subset of data that includes emails, usernames, and encrypted passwords," Plex wrote in its email. However, Plex assures its users that no payment or credit card information was breached during the data breach incident.
It should be noted that this isn't the first time Plex has been hit with a data breach. In 2015, a hacker stole email addresses, passwords, IP addresses, and private messages from its forum users. The company has not yet disclosed the tactic that was used during the data breach but it did clarify it has "already addressed the method that this third-party employed to gain access," and it's working behind the scenes "to prevent future incursions." With that said, users still need to exercise some caution.
Plex tells users to change their passwords
Even though Plex confirms in the email that "all account passwords that could have been accessed were hashed and secured in accordance with best practices," it has informed all users on the platform to change their passwords as soon as possible. In addition to that, users are advised to log out of all paired devices after resetting the password before using the new password to access the app. Here is a step-by-step Plex guideline that tells users how to change their passwords.
However, some users have claimed that they're having trouble accessing Plex after resetting their passwords. PC Gamer reports that the Plex website was offline for a while probably due to many users trying to access the platform in a rush to change their passwords — this could have caused the site to crash. Because of that, if you're having trouble accessing Plex, you could try again after a few hours. It would also be smart to enable two-factor authentication in the settings.