Time to change those passwords again! Two massive breaches occurred within the last month, totaling approximately 3 billion compromised usernames and passwords.
On January 17, the details of the world’s largest online dump of personal data, Collection #1 was published. This breach contained usernames and passwords relating to 772,904,991 individual email addresses. These were spread across 2,692,818,238 spreadsheet rows in 12,000 files.
More recently, a new leak dubbed Collection 2-5 was identified. This breach included 2.2 billion unique usernames and passwords. To make matters worse, more than 130 people were making the data available to download and there have been more than 1,000 downloads so far. This increases the scope for the information to be abused and the fact that there isn’t only one copy of the information means it will never be removed from the web.
What Should You Do?
First, check to make sure your information has not been compromised. Our go-to source is https://haveibeenpwned.com. Simply type in your email and the site will let you know if your information has been breached and will provide details on the leak.
Second, change those passwords! Better yet, invest in a Password Manager. A Password Manager will create and store secure passwords for all the websites you use and help you log into them automatically. You’ll enjoy the convenience of signing into your password manager once and then having it log you in everywhere else. No more interruptions in your workflow to send yourself a password reset link, further complicated by having you not use a password you’ve used before. To learn more about secure passwords and using a Password Manager, visit our recent blog posting, https://bmtlegal.com/passphrase-upgrade-to-passwords.
Finally, make sure you enable two-factor authentication when available. This extra security step will assist in protecting accounts.
If you need assistance setting up a Password Manager or more information on how to secure accounts, Contact the BMT Team
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