Plex Says Users Must Reset Passwords after Data Breach, Again

Popular media streaming platform Plex has informed its users of yet another data breach, urging them to change their passwords as soon as possible. 

Criminals often target media streaming platforms because they deal with sensitive information. Plex has fallen victim to a similar intrusion in the past, and a couple of years ago went through a very similar situation. 

Now, Plex has revealed that an unauthorized third party gained access to one of its databases, exposing information on a limited number of customers. 

The compromised data may include email addresses, usernames, securely hashed passwords, and authentication information. The company underlines that no credit card information has been affected because that type of information is not stored on those kinds of servers. 

It’s a relief that the passwords are hashed because it means they are not readable, but it’s still a good idea to change the Plex passwords as quickly as possible.

Containment and response

According to Plex, the breach was contained quickly, and the method the attacker used was identified and addressed.

“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this situation may cause you. We take pride in our security systems, which helped us quickly detect this incident, and we want to assure you that we are working swiftly to prevent potential future incidents from occurring,” said the company.

Plex has outlined two actions users must take, depending on their sign-in methods:

Password-based login: Users have to reset their Plex account password immediately via ‘https://plex.tv/reset’. The company recommends checking the option to “Sign out connected devices after password change,” which will log out all devices and require reauthentication with the new password.

SSO login: Users should log out of all active sessions through ‘https://plex.tv/security’ and sign back in as normal.

Plex is also strongly encouraging users to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for added protection if they haven’t already done so.

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