Huge amounts of personal data were leaked onto the network – attackers posted a 150 gigabyte archive containing 6.8 billion email addresses. Information about this appeared on the Telegram channel “Money on Air”.
The database is said to have been collected over two years from a variety of sources, including recent and old leaks. Cybersecurity experts who have studied the published data fragments have confirmed their authenticity, which raises serious concerns among experts.
Such amounts of information are a real treasure for cybercriminals: with their help they can carry out phishing attacks, try to guess passwords of accounts using brute force methods, and also use the obtained information for various social engineering schemes. Considering that many people still use the same password for different services, not only mailboxes but also accounts on social networks, online banking and other platforms are at risk.
Due to this problem, experts strongly advise users to take immediate precautions. First of all, you should change passwords on all important services, especially if they are used on multiple websites at the same time. Whenever possible, you should enable two-factor authentication, requiring login confirmation via SMS, push notification, or a special authenticator app. It is also useful to check your mailboxes through specialized services that allow you to find out if they are part of a known database of compromised accounts.
