We are now facing one of the biggest data leaks of all time.
Almost 773 million unique email addresses and 22 million unique passwords appear to be uploaded to a server at the MEGA cloud service and have been freely available to the public.
The mass data coverage is 87 GB and consists of pure text files, writes security expert Troy Hunt in a blog post.
- Your information is flowing freely
The leak has been named Collection # 1, and the data comes from thousands of sources over a period of 11 years.
"What I can say is that my own personal data is out there and that it is correct; The correct email address and password I used many years ago is located there. In short, if you are included in this leak, one or more of your passwords are floating around so others can see them, ”writes Hunt.
You can check for yourself whether you are affected by this data leakage or previous leaks by using Troy Hunt's Garden I Been Pwned service.
Several hundred million email addresses and passwords were posted on MEGA. (Ill .: Screen dump)
Was removed, but still out The security expert has received many inquiries regarding this leak in recent weeks. Several had discovered the 12,000 files uploaded to the MEGA service.
He adds that the files have been removed from the cloud service now, but that they still exist in a popular hacker forum. Hunt will for natural reasons not provide the name of this forum.
You can also register on the "Have I been pwned" service and receive alerts if your email address is found in future leaks.
Based on the Collection1 leak, we can safely say that many can expect to receive such an email these days.
