Previously, many reports confirmed that the Cit0Day leak has breached 13 billion user records from 23,000 hacked databases. It is difficult to tell if your email is among the other accounts that were compromised.
Participant hold their laptops in front of an illuminated wall at the annual Chaos Computer Club (CCC) computer hackers' congress, called 29C3, on December 28, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. The 29th Chaos Communication Congress (29C3) attracts hundreds of participants worldwide annually to engage in workshops and lectures discussing the role of technology in society and its future.
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But, before you take steps and check if your email is compromised, you must know first what is inside the Cit0Day zip file named "Cit0day.in_special_for_xss.is.zip." This file contains 13GB of folders.
After you enter the main file, you'll see several folders. Scroll down and the two more folders will show up. These are "Cit0day Prem [_special_for_xss.is]" and "Cit0day [_special_for_xss.is]"
What's inside the two folders?
What's interesting about these two folders is that the first one has 14,669 .rar files while the other file has 8,949 .rar files. Sum it up and you'll get 23,618 files. According to Troy Hunt's latest report, some people found out that their passwords and emails are among the breached data via HIBP search.
Miguel Chateloin (L) and Lazaro Gamio use their computers to write code that would allow people living in Cuba to use email to post to blogs during the Hackathon for Cuba event on February 1, 2014 in Miami, Florida. The hackathon brought together experts and programmers to devise innovative technology solutions aimed at strengthening communications and information access in Cuba. The event is organized by Roots of Hope with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
To help you understand what you're looking at, here are the two sets of files in their entirety;
1. Cit0day Prem [_special_for_xss.is]
2. Cit0day [_special_for_xss.is]
Once you open the largest file, you will see that there are around 1.5 million compromised emails addresses and MD5 hash pairs. The report stated that there are a total of 226,883,414 unique emails in both of the given folders. Although it might me a large number, it is still not included in HIBP's top 10 largest breaches.
How to know if your email is compromised
Users may use HAVEIBEENPWNED.COM to check if your email is compromised. Once you visit the website, all you need to do is to enter your email address and a message will pop-up revealing if it has been leaked to breached sites. If the message reads "Oh no - pwned!," the website will provide you three ways on how to better secure your account's password. It will also suggest to use 1Password.com to protect your sensitive information. It is adviced not to use the same password across different websites or email addresses.
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Written by: Giuliano de Leon.
