Why “pwned”?

The term “pwned” is a play on the word “owned”, often used in online and gaming communities to indicate that something has been compromised or taken over. In this context, it refers to an email address being exposed or controlled by a third party as a result of a data breach.

One of the first and most influential sites to use the term was Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), created by cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt — credit to him for helping make breach awareness mainstream.

pwned.email builds on that spirit by using HIBP data, along with additional sources, to give businesses insight into how their email domains are being used — and whether they’ve been exposed online.