After a user released a 100GB text file containing 8.4 billion passwords from prior data leaks and breaches on a prominent hacker forum, the world’s largest password collection was leaked.
All of the passwords in the leak are between 6 and 20 characters long, according to the author of the post, and all non-ASCII characters and white spaces have been eliminated.
According to the user, the collection comprises 82 billion passwords. But, the exact number of unique entries was 8,459,060,239, according to the data of CyberNews. The compilation itself has been dubbed ‘RockYou2021’ by the forum user.
“This leak is extremely concerning, and while authentication details and passwords are posted publicly, often due to the fact that data breaches are unfortunately a regular occurrence, it’s the sheer number of passwords that have been leaked that makes this notable. What it tells us is there is real value to organisations taking data management and digital hygiene seriously. Regularly changing passwords, using other measures like multi-factor authentication where available, as well as keeping on top of where data is being stored exactly, are all measures to help reduce the impact of such leaks. If businesses don’t get on top of their digital hygiene and manage things properly, they’ll face more shadow IT issues and an increase in the corresponding risk of being breached,” said Dave Russell, VP of Enterprise Strategy at Veeam.