Animu Tank

The investigation team has indexed a data breach tied to Animu Tank, an anime-focused website formerly operating at animutank.com, affecting 71,369 accounts. According to our investigation team, the breach is estimated to have occurred on January 1, 2016, and the indexed dataset contains email addresses for all 71,369 accounts and passwords for 71,274 of them. The listing was added to our database on January 3, 2025, and no individual or group has claimed responsibility for it.

Independent breach-tracking sources have documented this dataset as well. According to SynScan, AnimuTank was a site for anime release information, air dates, and anime, manga, and game news, and a copy of its user database circulated on the now-defunct RaidForums forum. The security firm InsecureWeb also reported that a copy of the Animutank.com dataset, about 13.5 MB in size, was posted to a Telegram channel used for sharing leaked databases.

Limited public reporting: As of September 25, 2026, detailed company notices or major news coverage for this listing were limited in sources reviewed. The facts below rely primarily on the indexed fields plus any secondary sources cited.

Breach Timeline

January 16, 2016: SynScan lists this as the date of the Animu Tank breach.

December 28, 2016: According to SynScan, the leak was posted on RaidForums by a user identified as Spender.

April 16, 2023: Per InsecureWeb, a copy of the dataset was posted on the Telegram channel #@leakdatabreaches by an unknown individual.

What Information Was Compromised?

Our analysis found the following data types in this breach: email addresses and passwords. SynScan's listing for the same dataset also includes usernames as part of the exposed data, and reports the passwords were stored using a mix of BCrypt and salted MD5 hashing, with none recorded as cracked in its dataset as of September 25, 2026.

Not every individual is affected by every type of data listed here.

What Are the Potential Risks for Affected Individuals?

This breach exposed the basic building blocks of online account security: email addresses and passwords. Because the dataset resurfaced on multiple forums and channels over several years, the main risk is credential abuse rather than a one-time intrusion.

If you reused your Animu Tank password on other sites, attackers can try those same email and password pairs elsewhere, a technique known as credential stuffing. Email addresses paired with any password detail also support targeted phishing, in which messages appear more convincing because they reference a site you actually used. Even hashed passwords carry some residual risk, since older or weaker hashing methods can be attacked offline given enough time and computing power.

The gap between the breach's estimated 2016 date and later repostings means some affected people may never have learned their data was exposed.

What Should You Do If You Were Affected?

If you had an account on Animu Tank, or simply want to check whether your email appears in this dataset, take these steps:

Change your password on any site where you used the same or a similar password, starting with your email account, banking, and social media.

If you still use that email address elsewhere, enable two-factor authentication wherever the service offers it.

Watch for phishing emails that reference anime sites, old accounts, or leaked passwords, and do not click links in unexpected messages.

Consider a password manager to create and store unique passwords for each account.

Monitor your accounts for unfamiliar logins and review any password-reset emails you did not request.

Because the exposed data is limited to account credentials and no payment or government identification data appears in the indexed fields, the practical priority is password hygiene rather than credit monitoring.