773 Million Email ID and Passwords Exposed In Monster Breach

As you may be aware of the massive data breach that exposed 773 email ID and passwords recently, read more here for more information.

Kaspersky Lab expert Sergey Lozhkin from Global Research and Analytics Team (GReAT) says: “This massive collection of data harvested through data-breaches had been built up over a long period of time, so some of the account details are likely to be outdated now. However, it is no secret that despite growing awareness of the danger, people stick to the same passwords and even re-use them on multiple websites. What’s more, this collection can be easily be turned into a single list of e-mails and passwords: and then all that attackers need to do is to write a relatively simple software program to check if the passwords are working. The consequences of account access can range from very productive phishing, as criminals can automatically send malicious e-mails to a victim’s list of contacts, to targeted attacks designed to steal victims’ entire digital identity or money or to compromise their social media network data,” says Sergey Lozhkin, security expert at Kaspersky Lab.

“We urge everyone who uses email credentials for online activity to take the following steps as soon as possible:

• Check if your e-mail account has been exposed online by going to  https://haveibeenpwned.com/
  
  •Use strong passwords for your most important or sensitive accounts (such as internet banking, online payment or social media networks) and change them regularly.
  
  •Consider switching to a password manager such as Kaspersky Password Manager. This way, you’ll only have to remember one master password that unlocks the secured vault with your other passwords.
  
  •Implement two-factor authentication wherever possible.”