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Highlights

• One of the largest password breaches ever recorded exposes 1.3 billion passwords and 2 billion email addresses.
  
• Data originates from devices infected with “infostealer” malware used by cybercriminals.
  
• Email services including Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook and Yahoo are affected.
  
• Security experts urge anyone caught in the breach to change their passwords immediately.
  

Scale of the breach

A historic data leak has exposed an estimated 1.3 billion passwords and 2 billion email addresses, creating one of the most extensive breaches ever verified. The dataset was identified by Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), a service that alerts users when their information appears in compromised databases.

The cache includes data linked to major email platforms such as Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook and Yahoo. HIBP chief executive Troy Hunt said the scale of the breach is “nearly three times” larger than the previous biggest dataset loaded into the service. He also confirmed that 625 million of the passwords had never been seen in a breach before.