If you\u2019re creating a new password online, you can now see if it has been compromised in a data breach.<\/p>\n
Troy Hunt, creator of data breach repository\u00a0Have I Been Pwned<\/strong><\/a>, has released a database of over 306 million passwords contained in multiple data breaches.<\/p>\n Previously, the Have I Been Pwned website allowed visitors to enter their email address to check if one of their accounts had been compromised by hackers in a data breach.<\/p>\n Hunt has now added a dedicated\u00a0Passwords page<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to the website, which allows users to check a password against a database of 306 million passwords.<\/p>\n The passwords contained in the list were compromised in various data breaches, making them accessible to hackers and other attackers.<\/p>\n While users may be tempted to enter their current passwords into the Have I Been Pwned website, Hunt warns visitors not to enter active passwords into any third-party service.<\/p>\n \u201cIt goes without saying, but don\u2019t enter a password you currently use into any third-party service like this,\u201d said Hunt.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t explicitly log them and I\u2019m a trustworthy guy, but yeah, don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n The Passwords page allows you to compare potential new passwords against the database of compromised keys to determine their security.<\/p>\n Safely comparing your current passwords to the database can be done offline, but requires technical knowledge.<\/p>\n Users can download a compressed database of the hashed passwords from Hunt\u2019s website courtesy of Cloudflare.<\/p>\n Each password is provided as a SHA1 hash, meaning they are not visible to the public.<\/p>\n Users can then use the\u00a0HASHBYTES function<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to turn their query into an SHA1 hash, which is checked against other hashed entries in the database using an SQL query.<\/p>\n Password security can be tricky, but password managers and security guidelines are available to help users stay safe.<\/p>\n Password managers allow you to only remember a single, secure password, which is then used to access a stored database of randomly-generated keys for the sites you interact with.<\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re choosing a master password for your password manager or a secure password for your account, it is important to keep a few guidelines in mind.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0BDO cybersecurity specialist Rudi Dicks<\/strong><\/a>, long passwords are important, as this exponentially increases the difficulty of hacking your password using brute force methods.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply adding .co.za to the end of your password makes it far more secure, while remaining easy to remember,\u201d said Dicks.<\/p>\n He added that users shouldn\u2019t use the same password across multiple websites, in case of a breach.<\/p>\n This article first appeared on MyBroadband <\/a><\/strong>and is republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n If you\u2019re creating a new password online, you can now see if it has been compromised in a data breach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":93695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[405,11956],"class_list":["post-119602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-hacking","tag-password"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Checking a new password<\/h3>\n
Creating a secure password<\/h3>\n
Now read:\u00a0How to stop hackers from stealing your data<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"