A leak on a market platform where hackers exchange stolen data has resulted in the passwords of more than 500,000 people in Belgium being made public.
A collective of hackers got its hands on over half a million business and private email addresses (and the associated passwords) from Belgians from RaidForums, an online marketplace where hackers trade stolen data among themselves.
The FBI and Europol took the platform offline last year but various data have now been made publicly available again.
VRT was able to view an extensive list of more than 500,000 e-mail addresses and their passwords, including many coming from companies and institutions such as employees of Ghent University (UGent), KU Leuven and even VRT itself, but also personal data.
Experts believe that the data came from an older hack of a popular website such as Dropbox, which is often used for work meaning that employees log in with their company accounts.
The breach likely concerns passwords over a year old, as the RaiderForums platform was already taken offline last year. According to haveibeenpwned.com, a website that checks whether your data was involved in a hack, the data was stolen in 2020.
How to manage your passwords securely
Always set up two-step verification. While this may seem annoying, it is the safest way not to be hacked. Better a bad password with two-step verification than a complicated password without.
Change your password regularly. This prevents a password from being up-to-date in the event of a leak.
Use different passwords for different websites. If having many different passwords is too complicated, a so-called "password manager" be an option. This serves as a kind of digital vault where you can keep all your passwords in one place.
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Do not include personal information in passwords such as your name, pets or work. Use a combination of lowercase, uppercase, numbers and special characters and make it longer.
Never respond to emails about passwords or personal information. When in doubt, forward messages to suspicious@safeonweb.be.
