Close to 10 billion passwords allegedly leaked on dark web: All the details

Password leak

In what is being termed as the biggest-ever password, security researchers claim that around 10 billion passwords in a popular hacking forum. According to Cybernews researchers, a whopping 9,948,575,739 unique plaintext passwords have been leaked.

According to the researchers, the data has been leaked in a file titled rockyou2024.txt on July 4. The forum user who posted or leaked the data had the username ObamaCare.

The researchers noted that the user who leaked the passwords registered in May 2024. Earlier they had leaked data base of an online casino, a law firm and student applications for Rowan College at Burlington County.

As per the researchers who cross-referenced the data, all the leaked passwords came from old and new data breaches.

7 cybersecurity tips to create powerful passwords and protect your accounts

“In its essence, the RockYou2024 leak is a compilation of real-world passwords used by individuals all over the world. Revealing that many passwords for threat actors substantially heightens the risk of credential stuffing attacks,” researchers said, according to Cybernews.

Prior to this leak, it was in 2021 when a similar incident happened at 8.4 billion passwords were leaked.

What can users do?

There are a few things which the researchers suggest certain tips which users can do to secure their accounts. Follow these tips:

1. Reset the passwords for all accounts. It is strongly recommended to select strong, unique passwords that are not reused across multiple platforms, say the researchers.
2. Users should enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible to enhance security.
3. It is further advised to use password managers to generate and store complex passwords.