MANILA, Philippines – Troy Hunt, the one-man unit behind data breach notification service Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), wants to sell HIBP to an entity who can help take it further.

HIBP is a free service which lets consumers check if their email addresses have been found in a data breach, as well as securely determine if their password has already figured in a breach and should not be used. The information the service provides also allows companies to protect clients from specific attack types and helps law enforcement agencies with investigations. The site has almost 8 billion breached records, with nearly 3 million people subscribed to receive notifications of data breaches.

In a post on Tuesday, June 11, Hunt explained the amount of work needed to keep the service updated has been staggering, with Hunt acknowledging he “was getting very close to burn-out.”

It’s time for @haveibeenpwned to grow up and go beyond what I can do as one person. This has taken a lot of thought over the course of this year; here’s the factors driving it, the path forward and what it means for the future. Here’s Project Svalbard: https://t.co/ZeRtzfCTA2

— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) June 11, 2019

Hunt explained, “Each and every disclosure to an organisation that didn’t even know their data was out there fell to me (and trust me, that’s massively time-consuming and has proven to be the single biggest bottleneck to loading new data). Every media interview, every support request and frankly, pretty much every single thing you could possibly conceive of was done by just one person in their spare time.”

Hunt added, “This isn’t just a workload issues either; I was becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that I was the single point of failure. And that needs to change.”

Hunt coined a nickname for the acquisition project: “Project Svalbard,” after the Arctic circle location for a massive seed bank – a thought that resonated with him seeing as HIBP could also be seen as “a huge vault stockpiling something valuable for the betterment of humanity.” He will be working with KPMG to help find potential buyers to help him fulfill the goals of HIBP as a transparent location that’ll allow consumers to have a free, growing resource which would aid in information security for everyone.

Regardless of who acquires HIBP, Hunt said he’ll be staying on, calling himself “part of the acquisition.”

Said Hunt, “I’m really happy with what HIBP has been able to do to date, but I’ve only scratched the surface of potential with it so far.” – Rappler.com