We Do Not Recognize Your Username and or Password Please Try Again
fifteen billion stolen usernames and passwords available online -- what to do
Security researchers have discovered more than 15 billion sets of usernames and passwords, taken from 100,000 separate data breaches or obtained by other means, that are being sold or given away complimentary online.
According to a new study from German information-security firm Digital Shadows, many of the compromised credentials were duplicates, merely the total number of unique business relationship credentials was still more five billion.
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The researchers said the credential sets had been obtained in "more than 100,000 different violations of data protection regulations, cyber hacks and other data leaks", adding that the "number of stolen and disclosed access data has increased by around 300% since 2018".
Digital Shadows found that most of the the stolen credentials belonged to "private individuals and consumers", with the login information of depository financial institution accounts, streaming services similar Netflix and Spotify, and other platforms beingness sold on the dark spider web.
Netflix accounts, for case, went for between $iii and $5, except for a supposedly "lifetime croaky" account that was beingness sold for $10.
Much of the information came from data breaches, but some was undoubtedly obtained through other methods of stealing account credentials, such as phishing attacks on account holders and "credential-stuffing" attacks that test for reused usernames and passwords.
How to keep your account passwords safety
Given that the number of stolen account credentials discovered past Digital Shadows is twice the number of human beings on Earth, it'due south fairly likely that anyone reading this story has at least one set of stolen credentials in the mix. If you lot're skeptical, and so plug your email addresses into the HaveIBeenPwned website to see if anything'southward been compromised.
To make sure your account credentials are as safe every bit they can be, the first step is to never reuse passwords, and to utilise one of the best countersign managers to generate and handle all those passwords.
Yous tin can't help it if a service with which yous have an account gets breached, simply if it does and you lot've already taken the in a higher place steps, then you tin residual like shooting fish in a barrel knowing that the password you lot created for that breached account tin't be used anywhere else.
Differing prices
This data was oft bachelor free of charge or flogged at "bargain prices". The average toll for a compromised consumer account was $15.43 (13.68 euros).
Nevertheless, prices varied based on the type of business relationship. For case, accounts for a financial service would fetch a higher price of effectually $70.91 (62.86 euros).
Meanwhile, login details for antivirus applications would be sold for $21.67 (19.21 euros), and for under 10 dollar or euros, cyber criminals could purchase logins for streaming services and social media platforms.
"In the past 18 months alone, the Photon Inquiry team at Digital Shadows has identified around 27.3 one thousand thousand user-countersign combinations amongst our customers," explains Stefan Bange, Country Manager DACH [Germany, Austria, Switzerland] at Digital Shadows.
"Of course, not every leaked login is followed by a successful cyber attack," Bange added. "Nevertheless, many of these accounts contain personal and very sensitive information that can be exploited by cybercriminals - be information technology for phishing, social technology, extortion or the infiltration of the network.
"The risk for individuals is great, just organizations and companies are also direct and indirectly afflicted past their employees and customers."
Corporations besides targeted
The researchers besides institute two million email addresses and usernames of corporate departments being sold on these marketplaces.
Compared to consumer information, domains for lucrative companies and industries could sell for prices ranging betwixt 500 and 120,000 dollars or euros on the dark web.
Digital Shadows said these include "large corporations and global players also as unlike government and authorities agencies".
Bange said the outcome is that it is like shooting fish in a barrel for cyber criminals to hack into user accounts, noting that "force bang-up tools and business relationship checkers are available on the Dark Web from only 4 euros".
He added: "In add-on, we have been seeing an increase in so-chosen "as-a-service" offers for some time now, in which criminals no longer have to do their own work, just just have admission to an account and thus the identity of the user for less than x euros can rent.
"Multi-cistron authentication (MFA) makes ATO attacks more hard, simply not incommunicable. Nosotros keep seeing new methods that bypass 2FA and that are discussed and acted on in cybercriminal forums. "
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/15-billion-accounts-for-sale
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