Breach Brief – Collection # 1

Published On January 21, 2019 | By Tom Huskerson | Breach Briefs

Collection # 1. By far the largest data breach in history. How large? Try 772,904,991 unique email addresses, over 21 million unique passwords compromised.

The Collection #1 data breach was first discovered by Have I Been Pwned security researcher Troy Hunt. Have I Been Pwned is an online tool that searches the web for your email or password. The service will alert you if your information has been compromised by any data breach ever. Most likely it has.

First appearing on the MEGA cloud service the data file contains over 87 gigabytes of data. According to Hunt the information remains on “a popular hacking forum.” The data was in a folder labeled with the name Collection #1. Though it is nearly impossible to determine where such a load of data came it may be a conundrum of several data breaches.

You’re asking; Am I affected? Anyway you look at it the answer is yes. You can know for sure by visiting “HaveIbeenPwnwd.com” and entering your email address. The site will quickly give you an answer. Another thing you can do is visit Experian.com and check you full social security number and other data to see if it has been found on hacker’s or dark websites.

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About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

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