560 million reasons to change your passwords right now
Hello. Stop reading this story and go check just how compromised your email accounts are.
Once you've clicked that link--assuming your email is linked to at least one site that's been breached at some point--you should go change your passwords.
Now, back to the story.
This latest change-your-passwords reminder was brought to you by an insecure database that reportedly contains around 560 million login credentials. The unknown compiler of that database appears to have collected those insecure logins from hugely popular sites/services such as LinkedIn, Adobe, DropBox, MySpace, Tumblr and more that were hacked at some point in the relatively recent past.
(So, again, if you use those websites and haven't recently changed your password, it might be a good idea to stop reading this article and go do that.)
The folks at Kromtech Security Center discovered the database while performing a regular scan of easily accessible devices connected to the internet.
The device on which these logins are stored isn't easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection, but it's run on MongoDB, an open source program that isn't exactly known for being secure. With a little understanding of how such programs work, those 560 million emails and passwords could be yours to peruse.
In closing, again, change your passwords, folks.
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
