Security experts have found a massive password leak, the largest ever recorded.
According to a report covered by the German news outlet CHIP, almost 10 billion passwords have been published online.
The collection, named "rockyou2024.txt," was uploaded on July 4 by a forum user named ObamaCare and contains 9,948,575,739 unique plaintext passwords.
The Cybernews team discovered that this collection includes both old and new data leaks.
This mix of passwords increases the risk because many users may have reused these passwords, making their accounts vulnerable to attacks.
How to Protect Your Data
To protect yourself, Cybernews strongly recommends:
Change All Related Passwords: Immediately update any passwords that might be part of the leak.
Use Strong, Unique Passwords: Make sure each of your accounts has a different, complex password.
Enable Multi-Factor Authentication: Add an extra layer of security to your accounts.
Use a Password Manager: Securely generate and store complex passwords using password manager software.
Evolution of a Previous Leak
This new collection is an expansion of the RockYou2021 collection, which was previously the largest with 8.4 billion passwords.
By combining passwords from various leaks between 2021 and 2024, the dataset grew by 1.5 billion entries.
Cybernews plans to integrate RockYou2024's data into their Leaked Password Checker, allowing users to check if their credentials have been compromised.
With the new leak surpassing the previous record, users need to be extra cautious and ensure their digital accounts are secure.
