From Newsgroup: alt.security

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15230351/Gmail-183-MILLION-passwords-data-breach.html

The incident occurred in April but has only just been disclosed

Gmail users have been urged to check their accounts after it
was revealed that more than 183 million passwords were stolen
in a data breach.

Australian cyber expert Troy Hunt, who revealed the incident,
called it a 'vast corpus' of breached data, which totals
3.5 terrabytes.

To put that into perspective, that's the equivalent to 875
full-length HD movies.

According to Mr Hunt, 'all the major providers have email
addresses in there' – so not just Gmail, but Outlook,
Yahoo and others too.

'They're from everywhere you could imagine, but Gmail
always features heavily,' Hunt told the Daily Mail.

. . .

I've been saying ... the current online-biz model
is NO LONGER SAFE.

And don't send Goog yer fingerprints either, then
the hacks/Vlad will have THOSE too. Biometrics
are only as secure as the database holding them
and these days, well ......

When's the last time you actually WENT to your
bank ? Does anyone there remember your face ?

--- Synchronet 3.21e-Win32 NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.security

On 2025-10-28, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15230351/Gmail-183-MILLION-passwords-data-breach.html

The incident occurred in April but has only just been disclosed

Gmail users have been urged to check their accounts after it
was revealed that more than 183 million passwords were stolen
in a data breach.

Australian cyber expert Troy Hunt, who revealed the incident,
called it a 'vast corpus' of breached data, which totals
3.5 terrabytes.

To put that into perspective, that's the equivalent to 875
full-length HD movies.

According to Mr Hunt, 'all the major providers have email
addresses in there' – so not just Gmail, but Outlook,
Yahoo and others too.

'They're from everywhere you could imagine, but Gmail
always features heavily,' Hunt told the Daily Mail.

. . .

I've been saying ... the current online-biz model
is NO LONGER SAFE.

And don't send Goog yer fingerprints either, then
the hacks/Vlad will have THOSE too. Biometrics
are only as secure as the database holding them
and these days, well ......

When's the last time you actually WENT to your
bank ? Does anyone there remember your face ?

You’re not wrong to be skeptical — the “trust the cloud” model has always
relied on the hope that massive databases will stay sealed, and that’s been proven false again and again. Centralized storage of credentials, biometrics, and personal data is a goldmine for attackers — and the bigger the company, the juicier the target.

This isn’t even a “hack Google” event so much as an ecosystem failure. The
breach likely involved credential dumps from dozens of compromised sites that people reused passwords on, which then get lumped together into these monster datasets. It’s a reminder that *security by scale* isn’t security at all — it’s
just a bigger mess when it fails.

And yes, biometrics are absolutely not magic. Once your fingerprint or face data leaks, you can’t change it like a password. Combine that with how rarely
people visit a physical branch anymore, and you’ve got a system that’s convenient but completely impersonal — and vulnerable the second the digital façade cracks.

The moral: use unique passwords, MFA, and assume every large provider is a breach waiting to happen. The business model’s not broken because of bad tech
— it’s broken because convenience keeps winning over caution.
--
Tom Mix
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From Newsgroup: alt.security

Tom Mix wrote:

On 2025-10-28, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15230351/Gmail-183-MILLION-passwords-data-breach.html

The incident occurred in April but has only just been disclosed

Gmail users have been urged to check their accounts after it
was revealed that more than 183 million passwords were stolen
in a data breach.

Australian cyber expert Troy Hunt, who revealed the incident,
called it a 'vast corpus' of breached data, which totals
3.5 terrabytes.

To put that into perspective, that's the equivalent to 875
full-length HD movies.

According to Mr Hunt, 'all the major providers have email
addresses in there' – so not just Gmail, but Outlook,
Yahoo and others too.

'They're from everywhere you could imagine, but Gmail
always features heavily,' Hunt told the Daily Mail.

. . .

I've been saying ... the current online-biz model
is NO LONGER SAFE.

And don't send Goog yer fingerprints either, then
the hacks/Vlad will have THOSE too. Biometrics
are only as secure as the database holding them
and these days, well ......

When's the last time you actually WENT to your
bank ? Does anyone there remember your face ?

You’re not wrong to be skeptical — the “trust the cloud” model has always
relied on the hope that massive databases will stay sealed, and that’s been proven false again and again. Centralized storage of credentials, biometrics, and personal data is a goldmine for attackers — and the bigger the company, the juicier the target.

This isn’t even a “hack Google” event so much as an ecosystem failure. The
breach likely involved credential dumps from dozens of compromised sites that people reused passwords on, which then get lumped together into these monster datasets. It’s a reminder that *security by scale* isn’t security at all — it’s
just a bigger mess when it fails.

And yes, biometrics are absolutely not magic. Once your fingerprint or face data leaks, you can’t change it like a password. Combine that with how rarely
people visit a physical branch anymore, and you’ve got a system that’s convenient but completely impersonal — and vulnerable the second the digital
façade cracks.

The moral: use unique passwords, MFA, and assume every large provider is a breach waiting to happen. The business model’s not broken because of bad tech
— it’s broken because convenience keeps winning over caution.

Jonathan Sylvester used his middle name with the number 1 appended every
time he set his password during 2004.
--
collaborate !believe protect !hunt
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From Newsgroup: alt.security

On 10/28/25 18:25, The World of Izz wrote:

Tom Mix wrote:

On 2025-10-28, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15230351/Gmail-183-
MILLION-passwords-data-breach.html

The incident occurred in April but has only just been disclosed

Gmail users have been urged to check their accounts after it
was revealed that more than 183 million passwords were stolen
in a data breach.

Australian cyber expert Troy Hunt, who revealed the incident,
called it a 'vast corpus' of breached data, which totals
3.5 terrabytes.

To put that into perspective, that's the equivalent to 875
full-length HD movies.

According to Mr Hunt, 'all the major providers have email
addresses in there' – so not just Gmail, but Outlook,
Yahoo and others too.

'They're from everywhere you could imagine, but Gmail
always features heavily,' Hunt told the Daily Mail.

. . .

    I've been saying ... the current online-biz model
    is NO LONGER SAFE.

    And don't send Goog yer fingerprints either, then
    the hacks/Vlad will have THOSE too. Biometrics
    are only as secure as the database holding them
    and these days, well ......

    When's the last time you actually WENT to your
    bank ? Does anyone there remember your face ?

You’re not wrong to be skeptical — the “trust the cloud” model has always
relied on the hope that massive databases will stay sealed, and that’s
been
proven false again and again. Centralized storage of credentials,
biometrics,
and personal data is a goldmine for attackers — and the bigger the
company,
the juicier the target.

This isn’t even a “hack Google” event so much as an ecosystem failure.
The
breach likely involved credential dumps from dozens of compromised
sites that
people reused passwords on, which then get lumped together into these
monster
datasets. It’s a reminder that *security by scale* isn’t security at
all — it’s
just a bigger mess when it fails.

And yes, biometrics are absolutely not magic. Once your fingerprint or
face
data leaks, you can’t change it like a password. Combine that with how
rarely
people visit a physical branch anymore, and you’ve got a system that’s >> convenient but completely impersonal — and vulnerable the second the
digital
façade cracks.

The moral: use unique passwords, MFA, and assume every large provider
is a
breach waiting to happen. The business model’s not broken because of
bad tech
— it’s broken because convenience keeps winning over caution.

Jonathan Sylvester used his middle name with the number 1 appended every time he set his password during 2004.

Who the hell is Jonathan Sylvester ?

By even recent reports, still the #1 popular password
is "password" :-)

Complexity rules oft require "Password-1" as the alt.

Most sane people will keep cross-account passwords
'similar' enough so they can remember, or at least
guess quick, but exactly the same PW for everything
IS a terrible idea.

Joe Average is unlikely to get major individual
hack attention - one fail and they'll move on to
the next victim. Bigger biz/govt accounts though ...

Back when I was setting up servers, I'd always set
the standard services like SSH, FTP, VNC and such
to a non-standard port value. Sometimes you could
actually catch the hacks in progress ... they'd
scan the standards and then move on - why waste
the time looking at, analyzing, everything ?
Plenty of fish in the sea.

As for e-mail and a few basics, you MIGHT look into
some of the smaller-but-good providers instead of
something in close orbit of Goog and big buddies.
Goog is the Big Giant Target the evil boyz just
can't ignore, the mother-load if they score.

Oh, do not adopt the "Well, stupid people deserve
to get burned !" mindset. There are mass MASS
quantities of stupid people and if they go down
they'll drag YOU down with them.

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