Bad news for the security of our user accounts. As we can read on Cybernews, there was a data leak so large that it was nicknamed “the mother of all leaks”. There are over 12TB containing over 26,000 million account records. Emails, phones, passwords… it’s an astonishing amount of data.
It is therefore up to us to take steps to minimize the damage if some of our credentials are leaked. We will see What checks and adjustments can we make so that this does not affect us?.
These are the services most affected by the “mother of all leaks”
The leaked databases contain passwords and data from many services, including networks used in China such as Tencent or Weibo. This is the list of global services affected by leak:
- Drop box
- Telegram
- My space
- Wattpad
- Deezer
- AdultFriendFinder
- Zynga
- Adobe
- MyFitnessPal
- Cloth
- Badoo
Services like MySpace are very old, but they must also be taken into account. If the password you used on these services is still the same as the services you use today, you could be at risk.
How to know if our data has been leaked
Cybernews has made available to everyone a section of its website in which we can quickly check if our data has been disclosed. All we have to do is go in and enter the emails we use for our user accounts:
Note that this check also takes into account leaks from past dates, so if you receive a warning that your password has been leaked, it may have been from a long time ago.
Alternatively, if you use iCloud Keychain, you can follow these steps to check if your passwords have been leaked:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to “Passwords”.
- Click on “Security Recommendations”
- Enable the “Detect leaked passwords” option:
This new leak may not have been reflected on Apple’s servers yet (and even less so if there are that many TB), but sooner or later it will be.
What to do if one of your passwords has been leaked
In this situation, two things need to be done as quickly as possible. The first, change password so that your account is not left in the air. And the second thing, if you haven’t already, is to enable two-factor authentication as much as possible.
Only in this way will you guarantee that no one takes advantage of the disclosed data to try to access your account. In case, for a season, be especially careful with any suspicious text messages or emails who can reach you.
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