My Data Breached

[LodeHere]

Hi, I just did some scans using my email addresses on https://haveibeenpwned.com

I recommend doing it. Including the email address you used for this forum. In my case t made me change my password.

 

 

[alvarnell]

Thanks for posting https://haveibeenpwned.com.

I also recommend doing that as well as signing up with the site to get notifications when and if any other breaches occur. You can also check out the passwords you use for critical sites (e.g. e-mail, financial institutions) by clicking "Passwords" in the menu and entering sensitive passwords you currently use to see if they have ever been compromised.

[David H. Lipman]

For the last year or so, there have been waves of campaigns of mass generated emails designed to goad people to pay a ransom using BitCoin over supposedly compromised systems and/or email accounts.  These emails are created from lists generated through actual hack attacks ( breaches ) but are purchased by those generating the email.

This Forum has multiple members who have encouraged Forum members to access https://haveibeenpwned.com/  so the email recipient can know where the email sender may have gotten some of their facts.  Not from some malware installed on their PC or from a direct compromise of their email account but from a data breach.  By accessing the referenced web site the public can get a better handle and understand why they can just delete the email ( and maybe changing an associated Email Account Password ) and not fall for the email ploy and not end up paying a ransom fee.  The ransom email is sent based upon the sender's knowledge of the potential recipient's fear and their general lack of knowledge.

 

Please reference:
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US FBI PSA - Extortionists Increasingly Using Recipients' Personal Information To Intimidate Victims
MyOnlinesecurity - attempted-blackmail-scam-watching-porn
BleepingComputers - Beware of Extortion Scams Stating They Have Video of You on Adult Sites
Malwarebytes' Blog - Sextortion emails: They’re probably not watching you
Malwarebytes Forum sample thread - Got strange threating email.

 

Edited January 19, 2019 by David H. Lipman
Edited for content, clarity, spelling and grammar

[David H. Lipman]

Update Reference:  Largest collection ever of breached data found

Quote

The 87GB data dump was discovered by the security researcher Troy Hunt, who runs the Have I Been Pwned breach-notification service. Hunt, who called the upload Collection #1, said it was probably “made up of many different individual data breaches from literally thousands of different sources”, rather than representing a single hack of a very large service.

Credit:  @Firefox