According to Cybernews, the most significant password leak in history occurred on July 4th. This leak, named RockYou2024 on a leading hacking forum, compiles 9,948,575,739 unique passwords in plaintext. The numbers may be a bit mixed up. There are approximately 10 billion passwords exposed, meaning an attack on an unprecedented scale.
Most of us use a password we set in multiple applications and sites, and then we do not update it again. In fact, sometimes you must have encountered warnings when logging into the platforms. For example, Google Chrome says, “Your password has been exposed due to a data breach on a site or application.” It may give an error message like: This means that a site where you used your password before has been hacked.
As a matter of fact, it is useful to repeat the recommendations. You should take this seriously and change your passwords at some frequency or use a secure password manager instead of switching between several different passwords depending on the service. Using 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) or MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) will also increase the security level.
“RockYou2024” is actually a combination of previous password leaks. With the previous “RockYou2021” compilation, 8.4 billion passwords were disclosed. Therefore, we can say that between RockYou2021 and RockYou2024, only about 1.5 billion more passwords were added to the list. According to ObamaCare, at least some of those 1.5 billion passwords were cracked with the help of RTX 4090.
Cybernews’ first report on these publications detailed what the hacking team could do going forward. Cybernews team said:
“Attackers can use the ten-billion-strong RockYou2024 build to target any system that is not protected against brute force attacks. This compilation covers everything from online and offline services to internet-facing cameras and industrial hardware. Moreover, RockYou2024, along with other leaked databases found on hacker forums and marketplaces containing, for example, user email addresses and other credentials, could contribute to a cascade of data breaches, financial scams, and identity theft.”
Cybernews is right about this, but 10 billion passwords have not suddenly been cracked recently. But no matter what, there are 10 billion different password variations discovered so far. Users should always take precautions as the list has been updated and maintained since 2021.
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