19 Billion Stolen Passwords?! Here’s Why You Should Care — And How to Beat the Hackers
1 min read
Summary
A report by Cybernews has shown that 19bn compromised passwords are available on the dark web, double the size of the earth’s population.
Of these, only 6% are unique, while 94% are reused, and 42% are short and weak.
The breaches occurred as a result of 200 security breaches within a year, and saw the exposure of “admin” and “password” as the most common passwords.
The exposure of so many passwords can lead to credential stuffing, where a leaked password is used across a range of sites to gain unauthorized access.
To avoid this, users should employ a password manager, turn on multi-factor authentication and avoid reusing passwords.