Change your passwords now: 560 Million email credentials diffused

By now you should know it well: it is important that you change your passwords regularly, and by choosing complex ones containing uppercase letters, numbers and if possible even punctuation. During this time more than ever, given those ongoing cyber security crisis performed by more and more skilled hackers.

If you haven’t changed your password for some time now you have to do it: a database containing login credentials of more than 560 million users runs wild on the Internet. It is still unclear who leaked this information; we only know 243.6 million unique email addresses are compromised.

The spread of credentials was discovered by the Kromtech Security Research Center and then confirmed by the very popular “Have I Been Pwned” site that allows us to find out if our data has been attacked and spread.

Apparently, however, the credentials are those already stolen in past attacks made at LinkedIn, DropBox, LastFM, Adobe, Neopets, Tumblr and even MySpace! That allows us to understand how some data are several years old. What makes dangerous the spread of this database is the amount of sensitive information it contains that can be easily used by hackers for future attacks.

To find out if your credentials have been compromised just go to the Have I Been Pwned website, enter your email address or username and wait for the answer. Whatever the outcome, remember to change your passwords often.

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