Data Breach Roundup (Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2026)
NationStates confirms data breach, shuts down game site
NationStates is a mulitplayer in-browser government simulation game. In late January the developers received a report from a player who claimed to have found a vulnerability, but also accessed user data in the process. The player has a history of reporting vulnerabilities like these and promises that any user data downloaded was deleted, but out of caution the devs are treating this like a breach. The exposed data included email address (including past email addresses), IP address, browser UserAgent strings, passwords stored in MD5, and DMs.
Ax Sharma
Panera Bread breach impacts 5.1 million accounts, not 14 million customers
Late last month, it was reported that American fast-food chain Panera Bread had suffered a data breach of 14 million customers. It's now been clarified that it was 14 million records, or just over 5 million customers. The data includes email address, name, phone number, and physical address and likely impacts employees as well as customers. Panera Bread has yet to make a formal statement or notify customers.