A hacker posted nearly 10 billion passwords online- likely the biggest leak ever

A file containing almost 10 billion passwords was reportedly posted on an online hacking forum. This could be the largest such compilation of leaked passwords ever and the file contains passwords compromised in both recent and old data breaches all over the world, Semafor reported. Owing to this, there could be an increased chance of credential stuffing attacks in which one compromised password used for a user’s account can be reused by a hacker to break into another account.

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The report claimed that not all the passwords in the file appeared to be new which means that they have been leaked previously and this increases the chance of “credential stuffing.” As per the practice, a bad actor can take a user’s known password and try to reuse it to break into other accounts in their name, Cybernews, a cybersecurity-focused news outlet, explained.

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This comes as the number of cyberattacks has more than doubled since 2020, an International Monetary Fund report estimated. The financial sector has experienced more than 20,000 attacks in the last two decades, the IMF noted while the healthcare sector is also an appealing target, The Lancet said.

What experts said on the leak

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Cybersecurity specialists told Forbes that the actual number of passwords in this compilation doesn’t increase the threat capabilities of bad actors but the scale highlights glaring holes in online security. One analyst said, “I know this might sound funny, but what’s an extra 1.5 billion passwords?” Forbes also reported that the file may actually turn out to be useless because of its huge size.