[LAUREN TAYLOR]

NEARLY 10 BILLION UNIQUE PASSWORDS — LEAKED ON A POPULAR HACKING FORUM – IN WHAT RESEARCHERS AT CYBERNEWS ARE CALLING “THE LARGEST PASSWORD COMPILATION.”

THEY SAY THE NUMBER IS STAGGERING —  (WITH 9,948,575,739 UNIQUE PLAINTEXT PASSWORDS) THE DATA UPLOADED TO A FILE TITLED “ROCKYOU2024” AND THEY’RE REAL PASSWORDS USED BY PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD.

SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?

THE TEAM AT CYBERNEWS SAYS THIS CAN INCREASE THE RISK OF CREDENTIAL STUFFING ATTACKS – WHICH CAN BE DAMAGING FOR USERS AND BUSINESSES.

A CREDENTIAL STUFFING ATTACK CAN HAPPEN WHEN CYBERCRIMINALS USE THE LEAKED INFORMATION AND ATTEMPT TO GAIN ACCESS TO OTHER UNRELATED SERVICES.

RESEARCHERS SAY ATTACKERS CAN USE THE INFORMATION FROM ROCKYOU2024 “TO TARGET ANY SYSTEM THAT ISN’T PROTECTED AGAINST BRUTE-FORCE ATTACKS” WHICH “CAN CONTRIBUTE TO A CASCADE OF DATA BREACHES, FINANCIAL FRAUDS, AND IDENTITY THEFTS.”

BUT THEY SAY THERE ARE STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO PROTECT YOURSELF.

 FIRST, CYBERNEWS SAYS YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY RESET ALL PASSWORDS ASSOCIATED WITH THE LEAK – AND USE A STRONG, UNIQUE PASSWORD NOT TO BE USED ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS. 

THEN, ENABLE MULTI-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION WHEN POSSIBLE – THIS WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO LOG-IN TO YOUR ACCOUNTS.

AND LAST, USE A PASSWORD MANAGER SOFTWARE WHICH CAN CREATE AND STORE COMPLEX PASSWORDS ON YOUR DEVICES.

 IN ANOTHER CYBER SECURITY ATTACK –

AT&T SAYS – A HACKER DOWNLOADED AND RELEASED CALL AND TEXT RECORDS OF TENS OF MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS – FROM MAY THROUGH OCTOBER 2022.

THE CONTENTS OF THE CALLS AND MESSAGES ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE BREACH ACCORDING TO A NEWS RELEASE. iT ALSO SAID INFORMATION OF CUSTOMERS LIKE NAMES, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS AND BIRTHDATES WERE NOT INCLUDED. 

AT&T SAYS THEY DON’T BELIEVE THE INFORMATION IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AND THEY WILL BE NOTIFYING CURRENT AND FORMER CUSTOMERS IF THEIR INFORMATION WAS INVOLVED.

FOR SAN, I’M LAUREN TAYLOR.

FOR MORE UNBIASED, STRAIGHT FACTS – DOWNLOAD THE SAN APP.