In an international operation, the FBI has seized a website containing user data from over 10,000 data breaches, according to Engadget.
According to the report, the FBI seized WeLeakInfo, a website that contained personal data taken from 10,300 data breaches. Engadget says the “site promoted itself as a legitimate way to perform security research, even though it offered phone numbers, IP addresses and other personal info that’s protected by law.”
Even worse, the information was organized in a searchable database that could be accessed through subscriptions that started as cheap as $2. With just an email address, someone could find any associated names, passwords, phone numbers and IP addresses. Engadget recommends individuals check “security expert Troy Hunt’s excellent haveibeenpawned.com site” to see if their information has been stolen.
As more and more services, platforms and devices become interconnected, it’s important for users to periodically change their passwords, and to use unique passwords for different services. If a person uses the same password across multiple services, it only takes a single breach to expose their data in multiple locations.
