News of the dataset comes from Troy Hunt, operator of the Have I Been Pwned service used to identify emails that appear in data breaches.
    • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
      17·
      11 months ago

      Yeah there’s no question: your data is not safe.

      Is that really a question when companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, your bank, etc. all claim your data as their property then sell it for profit, while offering no consideration in return?

        • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
          16·
          11 months ago

          Many do sell data, actually. I just literally made a post about this, with real figures instead of numbers I’ve previously pulled out my ass. If you click my profile it should be high up there (otherwise it will be difficult for me to find it in your own instance). This is my instance’s version of the post: https://lemm.ee/post/21285233

          The main source stated that the “legal” data brokerage industry, that is companies who simply buy and sell user data, was worth $319 billion in 2021.[1]

          The global data broker market was valued at US$319.030 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.96% over the forecast period to reach US$545.431 billion in 2028.

          Data brokers are the companies that collect the information of users through the internet legally and further, provide this data to various companies

          You are right though, some companies (eg Google) simply collect user data and use it for themselves, they don’t really sell much of what they have. This means that my figure where your average user is owed $40 per year would be an underestimation, possibly a very large one.

          We could maybe add the value of Google to the industry value, however even then Google’s value is offset by their various loss-leading ventures - the true value of the data Google holds is completely obscured. In any case, I need to go to bed! XD

          1. https://www.knowledge-sourcing.com/report/global-data-broker-market ↩︎

            • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
              3·
              11 months ago

              Well, they do also sell data access to governments. The argument when the government requested data from them was “we aren’t set up for this, it will incur significant expenses, we’ll have to develop solutions then set up and staff a department to handle requests”, which the government paid for. It’s not directly purchasing the data, but it is effectively.

                • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
                  2·
                  11 months ago

                  I’ll be honest, I’m still tired from last night lol, too much so to go digging. We’re also talking about something that has been the norm for more than a decade now - Google have long since established their processes for dealing with government requests. This may have started sometime around 2012, perhaps even earlier. I probably read it in an Ars Technica article, at a guess, but it could also have been something I stumbled upon on reddit.

    • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
      7·
      11 months ago

      I have worked IT for 2 Fortune 500 companies and let me tell you NONE of them took data security seriously.

      Neither has 90% of any of the other sites I’ve worked on.

      In my experience so few companies bother spending appropriately on it because IT is considered a cost center instead of a needed service.

    • zaphod@lemmy.caEnglish
      17·
      11 months ago

      Obviously any reputable password manager is better than none at all, but I strongly recommend using KeepassXC on the desktop and a suitable mobile client for phones and tablets, and syncing the database across devices with an encrypted peer to peer sync tool like Synching.

      I’ve always been nervous about being part of a large, juicy cloud hosted target, and LastPass was the proof that those concerns are well-founded.

      • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
        15·
        11 months ago

        Yep. If you’ve got the technical knowledge and a server, self hosting Bitwarden is quite easy. And your vault is end to end encrypted.

      • esaru@beehaw.org
        1·
        11 months ago

        KeepassDX for mobile is on F-Droid and can use the same file as accessed from KeepassXC from Laptop, synced by Syncthing.

        • zaphod@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          I can also recommend Keepass2Android, which I’ve been using for years.

      • falsemirror@beehaw.org
        11·
        11 months ago

        Many PW managers let you generate passphrases, which are all around better than random strings. Length is the most important factor so

        finance-caffeine-utopia-redress-unseen

        Is way stronger and easier to remember (and type) than

        Fl7$j4FWw)&5O

        • Myaa@beehaw.org
          3·
          11 months ago

          Huh, TIL. I had no idea that was an option but that’s super useful for things I need to type in on a device with no keyboard, or even things I can’t access my password manager for. Thanks for the protip there!

        • esaru@beehaw.org
          2·
          11 months ago

          And pass phrases are faster to type and with less typos even though they need more characters than passwords to be the same secure.

        • Murkhat@feddit.de
          2·
          11 months ago

          Is it really safer? I mean when trying to bruteforce a password, one would have to make a guess whether it’s a passphrase or not. But if you decided to check for pass phrases, wouldn’t the one you posted be cracked in 5 times the amount of words in that dictionary? I’m not sure how large the vocabularies of the generators are, but I would guess a random 17 char password might be safer than a 5 phrases password?

          • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
            5·
            11 months ago

            but I would guess a random 17 char password might be safer than a 5 phrases password

            And you would be very wrong about that. A 5 phrase password has entropy. “finance-caffeine-utopia-redress-unseen” is 28 characters. If you add in a different symbol between the words and add a number somewhere, this password becomes incredibly difficult to brute force.

            I’ll let xkcd explain it better.

            • Murkhat@feddit.de
              1·
              11 months ago

              Youre right,different separators, numbers and even capital letters change my theory alot

      • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
        8·
        11 months ago

        You don’t need to make it that long.

        And also most TVs or whatever you’re streaming with has a way to type from your phone nowadays. Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, heck I think even Xbox.

        It’s kinda nice on Apple TV your phone will suggest autofill passwords for the TV, even from theirs party password managers like Bitwarden.

        • abbadon420@lemm.ee
          4·
          11 months ago

          Android tv’s arent that old. 10 years max. 5 years since it’s affordable for most people. Is it unreasonable to own a 5 year old non-smart tv? I think not. I think it’s weird that so many people assume everyone owns a smart tv.

          • Evkob@lemmy.ca
            6·
            11 months ago

            In what scenario would you need to type in a password on a non-smart TV though? Parental lock?

          • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
            4·
            11 months ago

            You’re not wrong but in what context would you be putting in passwords on a non-smart device

            Also it’s not just smart TVs. You can hook up streaming sticks and boxes and game consoles to anything with an HDMI port

    • SevenProvinces@startrek.website
      11·
      11 months ago

      This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word “no.” The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it

      Thank you so much for introducing me to this

  • Boozilla@beehaw.orgEnglish
    12·
    11 months ago

    Cybersecurity is expensive and doesn’t contribute directly to profits. It can prevent serious damages (legal, financial, and reputation) but that requires long-term thinking. Most executives don’t look past quarterly earnings.

    • explodicle@local106.comEnglish
      7·
      11 months ago

      Neoliberals: “OK how about we keep doing the thing that makes them care only about next quarter, but give them a $1 fine every time they’re negligent?”

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
    5·
    11 months ago

    id recommend custom email addresses… most places let you tack on arbitrary strings to your email address or if you have your own domain, you can just forward all and use anyname@yourdomain on the fly.

    no single system compromise can affect any other system

  • Nougat@kbin.social
    5·
    11 months ago

    On the other end, prevent malicious actors from using identity theft to get credit cards and loans: freeze your credit.

    It’ll be a minor hassle when you go to get a car loan, and forget that your credit is frozen - but you will be able to temporarily unfreeze it from your phone.

  • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    Any lemmy instances included in this breach?

    Edit: Doesn’t appear to be the case. At least, when I checked mine they were fine.

  • Dem Bosain@midwest.socialEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    Is there someplace to get this list of passwords? I’m not worried about my current passwords being on there, but there was one I used years ago that I still haven’t found on any list. I’m curious if it’s on there yet.