A harrowing breach of data of at least 16 billion passwords was made public, thus disclosing a horrific data leak by hackers. Google's, Facebook's, and Apple's clients are the victims here. The fate of internet security has been further compromised, with even more cybercriminals attempting to upload such a databank onto various dark websites.
How Were These Passwords Leaked?
According to the experts, larger-scale events like data breaches or phishing attacks are responsible for this kind of leaking. Getting into security loopholes spread in different sites and applications worldwide, hackers steal billions of usernames and security codes. The problem worsens because many of Google's, Facebook's, and Apple's users use the same code in different places, thereby giving cybercriminals fast access to their multiple accounts.
What Should You Do Now?
The leak should create an urgency for people to change their codes. Create strong codes that are a combination of lower-case and capital letters with numbers and some special symbols. Use two-factor authentication on all sites that offer it, as this will make it much more difficult to gain access to your accounts.
And for your sake, different codes should be used for different accounts. One code may be leaked to other accounts with the same password, but at risk due to the use of a different code. It is possible and safe to use a password manager, which in turn will secure the storage of the codes of your different accounts.
Opinion of Cybersecurity Experts
Experts believe that leaks will continue to occur. Please, keep checking and monitoring the online security of your accounts. Avoid clicking on any suspicious emails/links. Always keep your device's security updates.
Last but not least, self-security. Internet information is to be made secure first. Just a small bit of awareness can save you from tremendous losses.
