Your email and password is probably circulating right now in the dark web.
773 million emails and 21 million unique passwords called “Collection #1.” This is the biggest breach known in data breaches, yet.
Reported by Troy Hunt, a Microsoft Regional Director, said the 87GB data was uploaded in cloud service, MEGA. Then the data was posted to a hackers’ forum. Hunt said that because of this breach people are vulnerable to credential stuffing. This is where a combination of username and password are used to hack their other accounts.
Hunt has reported that these are new data breaches and doesn’t involve any of the major breaches in the past. He mentioned in his blog post that despite himself being part of the Collection #1, the passwords were old.
What to do?
First and foremost, is change your passwords. Make sure you have different passwords for each of your online accounts. I would add, make sure none of your accounts are linked to Facebook, as a breach on that account can lead your hacker to each and every one of them.
If you haven’t enabled two-factor authentication, then you should. Not only will you get to keep your accounts a little bit more secure, you’ll also know if someone is trying to access your account.
You should also check out Tory Hunt’s “Have I Been Pwned.” It’s a site that tells you if your email was in a compromised website. You can also use the “Pwned Passwords” to check if your password has also been compromised. It is advisable to change passwords now.
You’d also be surprised how common it is for people to use “password”, “123456789”, or “qwerty” as their passwords. Create something more complex with a combination of upper and smaller cases, numbers, and symbols.
However, if you’re someone who don’t reuse passwords or change passwords regularly, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.