Der Spiegel: German police in the town of Verden have identified 18 million email addresses and their corresponding passwords. The news comes just a few months after German authorities rediscovered 16 million credentials stolen by cybercriminals.
According to Der Spiegel (published in German), at least three of the 18 million usernames and passwords discovered are believed to belong to users from Germany. The number could be much higher, as many addresses end in .com, so the origin of the victim cannot be ascertained.
Unlike the previous incident, where many of the passwords were old and had been changed by the owners, this time the data appears to be very recent. Verden authorities have notified the country's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) of their findings.
Der Spiegel , as part of the article, analyzed the incident and has concluded that this latest incident could be linked to the one in which 16 million credentials were found.
In January, after 16 million email addresses and passwords were exposed, the BSI created a new service, in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom, Avira and other organizations, to help users determine whether their credentials had been stolen.
Perhaps now with this big leak the BSI will launch another website or update the old one to include the new data provided by the Verden police.
See the Der Spiegel.
