14 DAY TRIAL // As if we weren't having a bad enough week in terms of digital security with WannaCry running wild across global computers, it has now been revealed that a new database containing passwords has been dumped online - all 560 million of them.
Dubbed the "mother of all leaks" by folks over at the security research center MacKeeper, the database contains more than 560 million passwords. After running the set against Troy Hunt's Have I Been Pwned platform, it was also discovered that over 243 million unique emails were also in the database, almost every single one appearing in other breaches.
According to MacKeeper, this seems to be just another giant database containing passwords collected from a variety of sources, including previous data breaches. It's what could be known as a "combo list" since it mixes information from multiple sources.
The fact that this data was floating around the Internet somewhere isn't new, but putting all this together, having it readily available for anyone curious to have a look is worrisome.
"During our research we were surprised to see as many as 313 large databases, with size over 1GB, with several terabytes of data, hosted in US, Canada and Australia. The database in question is hosted on a cloud-based IP, and it is unclear who actually owns it. We sent notification email to the hosting provider, but usually it is not the quickest way to shut it down," the researchers explain.
Database includes data from previous leaks
The database has over 75 GB in size and contains data structured in readable json format. It includes data from at least 10 previous leaks, including LinkedIn, Dropbox, MySpace, Neopets, RiverCityMedia, Tumblr, MySPace and Lastfm, to name a few.
That being said, it's probably a good idea to go on and refresh some passwords, especially if you're in the habit of reusing the combinations for multiple accounts. Make sure you set a password that it's easy to remember, but difficult to hack, which includes upper and lower case, as well as numbers.
