JVTech News Billions of passwords have been leaked online and yours is probably one of them. The best thing to do is change your PSN and Xbox passwords immediately
Published on January 29, 2024 at 7:15 p.m
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A data collection dubbed the “mother of all security breaches” has surfaced online. Fortunately, this only seems to be data from old leaks.
Good news and bad news
A discovery is currently causing quite a stir on the Internet: a huge collection of passwords, addresses and the like was found and illegally obtained. It would contain 26 billion pieces of data. For this reason, it is also called the “mother of all violations.” But there is also good news in this context: This gigantic mass was apparently not acquired recently, but simply consists of a large number of data from previous hacks that exploited security gaps.
Every single data breach ever reported or sold was carefully collected and left in a misconfigured instance by an unknown actor. I'd say it's even bigger @troyhuntis HIBP. https://t.co/ZyMqT0nLO8
— Bob Diachenko 🇺🇦 (@MayhemDayOne) January 22, 2024
The person behind this discovery is a security researcher named Bob Diachenko. There are 26 million records, apparently including connection data from MySpace, Twitter, Deezer, LinkedIn, Telegram, Tencent QQ and many others. The massive gathering initially caused alarm, but a security expert from Have I Been Pwned later raised the alarm. According to Troy Hunt, this discovery is just a collection of old, already known leaks and hacks. It's just a lot of data, but not new.
Xbox, PSN and Nintendo Online accounts are not directly affected
The three major console manufacturers are not mentioned in the data, so it is very unlikely that your account will be stolen based on this collection alone. The situation only becomes complicated when you use the same email address and password for many accounts and this data is included in the collection. Then someone could steal your PSN, Xbox or Nintendo profile right under your nose. In general, your email address poses the greatest risk to you. If your email password is similar to that of a leaked account, a “hacked” electronic mailbox and the message “Forgot your password?” » Many websites can open the door to a stranger. A quick tour of the Have I Been Pwned website is recommended.
Photo credit: Erik Mclean (Unsplash)
To be 100% (or almost) sure that everything is OK for your respective accounts, It's best to enable two-factor authentication on services you have accounts with. In this case, confirmation must always be made via a second device (e.g. smartphone) when registering or making an online purchase. This is possible with Microsoft's Xbox accounts and Sony's PSN accounts, as well as Nintendo Online.. Although it can be annoying, you will live much more peacefully knowing that no one can take your expensive digital games or access your personal data.