The intrusion at ADT, detected around 20 April 2026, produced two figures. The attacking group claimed more than ten million records. Verification supported approximately 5.5 million people.
Both numbers are real in the sense that both were stated. Only one describes the world.
Why Claims Inflate, Mechanically
Inflation is rarely a lie invented from nothing. An archive contains duplicate rows for the same person. It contains historical records for people who are no longer customers. It contains test data, staging copies, and rows with nothing in them.
Counting rows produces a large number. Counting distinct identifiable people produces a smaller one. A group with an interest in the larger number counts rows and is not lying, exactly — it is choosing the measure that flatters the listing.
The Adidas Case Is The Extreme Version
This desk has filed a case where a group claimed roughly 815,000 rows through a third-party partner and the affected total resolved to around 130 accounts. That is a discrepancy of nearly four orders of magnitude between assertion and outcome.
Which is the entire argument for our standard. A leak-site figure is an advertisement written by the seller. It is publishable as a claim, attributed to the claimant, alongside the verified figure where one exists — and never as the headline number.
Compiled from public reporting, listed below. Where claimed and verified figures differ we give both and say which is which. We did not review the underlying data. Corrections: corrections@forensicpost.com.