Recently the media has been filled with reports of millions of Gmail email addresses  and passwords being compromised, however, compromise of this information was not, as some assumed, a result of lax security at Google.  Rather the data breach relates to the cybersecurity company Synthient disclosing a dataset of 183 unique email addresses, passwords and the websites where those passwords were used including Gmail accounts that Synthient gathered from various dark web sites where cybercriminals buy and sell goods and services.  This data was not the result of a single data breach, but a compilation of data from numerous data breaches made available on the dark web .  Synthient has given the data to the website Have I Been Pwned which is a terrific, free website where you can go, put in your email address and learn about data breaches affecting you.  While the data was originally discovered by Synthient in April, the data only recently in October was provided to Have I Been Been Pwned.  Here is a link to Have I Been Pwned’s site where you can learn if your passwords and accounts have been compromised. https://haveibeenpwned.com/

TIPS

Certainly, if you find that your passwords have been compromised you will want to change your password, but this is probably a good time to evaluate how strong your passwords are.  Here is a link to a Scam of the Day in which I describe how to pick a strong password. https://scamicide.com/2022/03/19/scam-of-the-day-march-20-2022-is-your-password-strong-enough/

It is also important to use unique passwords for each of your accounts so if one account is compromised, your other accounts will still be secure.  You also should use dual factor authentication on all of your accounts so that even if your password is compromised, your account could not be accessed.

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