This is not the first time we have talked about a major password theft. Earlier this year, 71 million passwords were stolen in what had been an already worrying leak at the time. The truth is that the theft and exposure of access credentials is very difficult to get rid of, and according to information published in TechSpot, we have an even bigger leak on our hands.
Why is it important? Because, despite the fact that passwords cannot guarantee online security, they are the first line of digital defense for a large majority of citizens. For this reason, the fact that some truly crazy figures have been exposed on the Internet hacking forum is a huge cause for concern in cybersecurity circles.
The biggest leak in history, by far
According to the outlet, a user of a hacker forum who uses the nickname “ObamaCare” has posted a plain text file containing nearly 10 billion unique passwords. It is the largest leak in history by a wide margin, without a doubt.
This user already had a track record of leaking data, including the employee database of the law firm Simmons & Simmons, data from the online casino AskGamblers, and student applications for an academic institution called Rowan College.
These passwords would apparently come from new and old security breaches that would have been included in a previous text file, called RockYou2021.txt (the current one would be RockYou2024.txt). This old file would contain approximately 1,500 million fewer passwords than the new one. And between one and the other, for any malicious hacker, both files can be very powerful tools.
Have your passwords been compromised? You have two ways to find out: the first is through a Cybernews checker tool in which you will have to enter one of your passwords to find out. The second belongs to the well-known Have I Been Pwned, which has a specific tool for passwords that works in the same way as Cybernews.
If any of your passwords have been compromised, we recommend that you change them immediately using resources such as these websites to create strong keywords or password managers that will help you create and store them.
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