France's CNIL Warns of Privacy Risks From Huge Number of Stolen Passwords
Sixteen billion stolen identifiers and passwords available online as a result of data breaches provide additional options for bad actors, French data protection authority CNIL said Friday.
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For instance, those who want to attack a site or access an account may find it easier because many people continue to use passwords and identifiers that were compromised in breaches for different online services.
CNIL urged the French public to be vigilant about the activity in their most important accounts, such as email services or e-commerce sites, and to pay attention to alerts from them. In the case of a suspicious event or concern, users should change their passwords and avoid using the same password for different services.
It also recommended multifactor authentication for the most important and trusted services such as mail and bank accounts.
In addition, it urged users who believe a data breach may have affected them or someone they know to report it to CNIL.
"Be vigilant about vulnerable people," CNIL said, including those without daily access to the internet, older people and those who may face a greater risk in cases of data breaches from, for example, disclosures about sexual orientation, state of health or religious or political views.