Massive data dump containing millions of passwords sparks security alert: Is your data safe?

Yeah there’s no question: your data is not safe.
Is that really a question when companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, your bank, etc. all claim your data as their property then sell it for profit, while offering no consideration in return?
I have worked IT for 2 Fortune 500 companies and let me tell you NONE of them took data security seriously.
Neither has 90% of any of the other sites I've worked on.
In my experience so few companies bother spending appropriately on it because IT is considered a cost center instead of a needed service.

Use a password manager. Every account gets a different (and strong) password.

Obviously any reputable password manager is better than none at all, but I strongly recommend using KeepassXC on the desktop and a suitable mobile client for phones and tablets, and syncing the database across devices with an encrypted peer to peer sync tool like Synching.
I've always been nervous about being part of a large, juicy cloud hosted target, and LastPass was the proof that those concerns are well-founded.
- Yep. If you've got the technical knowledge and a server, self hosting Bitwarden is quite easy. And your vault is end to end encrypted.
- KeepassDX for mobile is on F-Droid and can use the same file as accessed from KeepassXC from Laptop, synced by Syncthing.
All cool and dandy, until you have to type that random 50 letter string on your TV.
- Many PW managers let you generate passphrases, which are all around better than random strings. Length is the most important factor so
  finance-caffeine-utopia-redress-unseen
  Is way stronger and easier to remember (and type) than
  Fl7$j4FWw)&5O
- You don't need to make it that long.
  And also most TVs or whatever you're streaming with has a way to type from your phone nowadays. Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, heck I think even Xbox.
  It's kinda nice on Apple TV your phone will suggest autofill passwords for the TV, even from theirs party password managers like Bitwarden.
- I had to do that recently, ended up being easier to just temporarily change the password to something short on a pc, then change it back after.
- As long as you generate the PW with numbers and special characters included, a 14 character password will take over a hundred years to crack.
  50 is so unnecessarily large, it closes in on the age of the universe amount of time needed to brute force.
Additionally, I use simplelogin so they also gotta match unique passwords with my unique emails and then get past 2fa.

Let me tell you something about Betteridge's law for headlines

This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no." The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don't actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it
Thank you so much for introducing me to this
- My pleasure :)

Cybersecurity is expensive and doesn't contribute directly to profits. It can prevent serious damages (legal, financial, and reputation) but that requires long-term thinking. Most executives don't look past quarterly earnings.

Neoliberals: "OK how about we keep doing the thing that makes them care only about next quarter, but give them a $1 fine every time they're negligent?"

On the other end, prevent malicious actors from using identity theft to get credit cards and loans: freeze your credit.

Transunion: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
Experian: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
Equifax: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/

It'll be a minor hassle when you go to get a car loan, and forget that your credit is frozen - but you will be able to temporarily unfreeze it from your phone.

id recommend custom email addresses.. most places let you tack on arbitrary strings to your email address or if you have your own domain, you can just forward all and use anyname@yourdomain on the fly.

no single system compromise can affect any other system

But many sites don't support that, unfortunately.
DHL for example will happily create an account for you with the "mail+xyz@gmail", but will sometimes drop the suffix internally. You can't reset your password for example. Super annoying.
- yeah that will give you 'reply' ability, but ive noticed i almost never actually need that extra bit.

Any lemmy instances included in this breach?

Edit: Doesn't appear to be the case. At least, when I checked mine they were fine.

Is there someplace to get this list of passwords? I'm not worried about my current passwords being on there, but there was one I used years ago that I still haven't found on any list. I'm curious if it's on there yet.

The list has been added to haveibeenpwned.com, you can check your passwords here.
- OH NO, IT'S ON THERE!
  ...anyway...