(NewsReady.com) – As Americans and people around the world come to rely on technology more, cybersecurity is becoming more important. A recent leak of billions of passwords has once again shown how critical it is.
On Monday, June 7, CyberNews revealed a massive data leak. According to reports, someone posted a file with more than 8.4 billion passwords on a popular hacker forum. The name of the file was “RockYou2021,” allegedly a throwback to the 2009 RockYou breach where hackers stole more than 32 million people’s passwords.
According to security expert Troy Hunt, the vast majority of the passwords posted in this breach are “not a list of real-world passwords compromised in data breaches,” but instead a list of words used for “cracking passwords.”
For folks asking about 8.4B record “RockYou2021” password list that’s in the news today, this is an aggregation of multiple other lists. For example, this password cracking list: https://t.co/D72MJxk051
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) June 8, 2021
Nonetheless, it’s a good idea for people to change their passwords. The best, most secure passwords are a mix of numbers, symbols, and lowercase/uppercase letters. For example, you’d want to use a format that is random, like this “V8yRR%fYs2X.” Avoid using children’s or pet names, or any other word related to your personal life. And, be sure to monitor your credit cards and bank accounts for suspicious activity.
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