Two Million Passwords Snatched From Facebook, Google, Twitter and Others

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By Trey Thoelcke Published
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As if there weren’t enough reminders for Internet users to frequently change their passwords, this week came news that more than 2 million accounts on some of the most popular social media sites have been compromised in a hack that began in October and may be ongoing.

Chicago-based cybersecurity group Trustwave said that more than 1.5 million website login credentials and more than 300,000 email passwords were stolen from a server in the Netherlands. More than 300,000 of the passwords were snatched from Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), almost 60,000 from Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and more than 50,000 from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) and LinkedIn Corp. (NASDAQ: LNKD) were not spared, with more than 21,000 and more than 8,000, respectively, acquired by the malware.

Also hit was payroll services provider Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP), with nearly 8,000 passwords stolen.

All the companies were notified of the breach, and ADP, Facebook and others have reset the effected passwords of the compromised accounts. Accounts in nearly 100 countries were affected. Most of those accounts, more than 1.8 million, were in the Netherlands. More than 1,900 of the stolen passwords were from accounts in the United States.

Still, better safe than sorry when it comes to your passwords. Besides changing them frequently, using more secure passwords is always better. According to Trustwave, the most common passwords in this particular hack were along the lines of 123456, password, admin and 111111. Do any of those look familiar? If so, it may be time to rethink your password strategy.

Photo of Trey Thoelcke
About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.

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