An academic researcher published 10 million usernames and passwords where any hacker can see them

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Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans

A security analyst and hacking author just published 10 million web usernames and passwords in the name of academic research. US-based network security expert Mark Burnett announced the news on his blog on Monday. Burnett believes the data will help security researchers determine how people choose their online credentials and how to make the internet a safer place to store information and protect it. But he admits that what he has done is ethically “close to the line.” Typically, Burnett writes, researchers only unveil passwords alone for research purposes. Password databases help companies see the most commonly used codes and, in turn, they can discourage customers from using lousy passwords like “password” or “12345678.” But working out what happens after passwords are published alongside usernames “has been greatly neglected” by researchers, Burnett says. Burnett’s project has raised a few eyebrows. As he prepared to unleash the potentially sensitive data onto the web, he wrote a long blog post about why the FBI shouldn’t track him down and punish him for trafficking in hacked information. Burnett is also challenging the law surrounding research into online security and information, which he believes makes looking at and studying hacked information equally criminal as […]

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