A database with 8.4 billion passwords has leaked. Is there yours among them?

A huge, 100 GB database called RockYou2021 has appeared on a popular hacking forum, containing more than 8.4 billion passwords. These were probably collected from previous leaks, informs the CyberNews portal.

The forum user who published the database claims that it contains leaked passwords with a length of 6-20 characters and without characters that are not part of the ASCII system. The same user also stated that the file contained 82 billion passwords. However, CyberNews found that the database actually contained “only” 8,459,060,239 unique passwords.

The forum user named the database “RockYou2021”. It was probably inspired by an infamous RockYou leak in 2009. The attackers then managed to retrieve 32 million passwords and publish them stored in a plain text file.

This leak is comparable to the largest data leak to date, called Compilation of Many Breaches (COMB), whose database contained 3.2 billion passwords. Because the RockYou2021 database is created by combining previous leaks, it also contains passwords from the COMB leak. Attackers can then combine RockYou2021 database data with leaks that contain email addresses and use them to create attacks in the future.

How to check if the RockYou2021 database also contains your passwords

It is estimated that only about 4.7 billion people in the general population use the Internet, so it is highly likely that your passwords are part of a leak. You can securely verify this with the CyberNews password checker.

If any of your passwords are in the database, or you suspect they may be there, change them as soon as you go, wherever you use them. We also recommend that you turn on two-factor authentication.