NAIROBI, Kenya- In what is being described as the largest password leak of all time, a staggering 10 billion passwords have been exposed, according to a recent report.
This latest breach marks yet another instance of massive amounts of hacked passwords and personal information being leaked on the internet.
The breach was reported by Cyber News, which revealed that a user going by the name ‘ObamaCare’ has leaked a dataset named ‘rockyou2024’ on a popular hacking forum.
This dataset contains a jaw-dropping 9,948,575,739 unique passwords. The leak was made public on Thursday and has since sent shockwaves through the cybersecurity community.
This isn’t the first time ‘ObamaCare’ has made headlines. The same user has previously leaked sensitive data, including employee databases from the law firm Simmons & Simmons, leads from the online casino AskGamblers, and applications for Rowan College at New Jersey.
The ‘RockYou2024‘ dataset, according to Cyber News researchers, is a compilation of over a decade’s worth of stolen passwords.
This recent dataset is the third significant release, building on previous compilations. In 2021, a similar dataset named ‘RockYou2021’ was released, containing around 8.4 billion passwords.
The latest release adds approximately 1.5 billion new passwords to this already enormous database.
The origin of these datasets dates back to 2009, when the first ‘RockYou’ compilation was released, containing tens of millions of passwords from social media accounts.
Each successive release has expanded on this foundation, culminating in the massive ‘RockYou2024’ dataset.
The Growing Threat of Data Breaches
This latest breach is a stark reminder of the growing threat posed by data breaches.
Earlier this year, a colossal 12 terabytes of data were leaked online, including nearly 26 billion digital records from platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Weibo, and Tencent.
With the volume of leaked data increasing, it is more critical than ever for individuals and organizations to prioritize cybersecurity.
Regularly updating passwords, using multi-factor authentication, and being vigilant about phishing attempts are just a few steps that can help protect against these threats.
