In the Telegram channel of the head of DeviceLock company Ashot Hovhannisyan, arrived information about data leak of 33.7 million users of LiveJournal (also known as LJ).
The researchers reported that the detected text file contains 33,726,800 lines, among which you can find user IDs, email addresses, links to user profiles, as well as passwords in plain text format (with 795,402 lines came with a blank password).
Subsequent analysis of passwords showed that 69% of mail/password combinations were unique, that is, they had never been found in other leaks before.
“This leak occurred back in 2014, just until recently, the information was not publicly available, but in early May 2020, someone known under the pseudonym Vinny Troia (coincides with the name of the famous American information security researcher) put the database in an open access”, — informs Ashot Hovhannisyan.
LiveJournal users note that recently the administration of LiveJournal actually began to send letters to people asking them to change passwords, as they were supposedly outdated. Qrator Labs have already confirmed the distribution of such letters.
“Because LiveJournal’s password requirements have changed since you set your current password, the password will become invalid if it is not changed within five days. In this case, to enter the account you will need to set a new password”, – say the letters.
Interestingly, the LJ administration denied the fact of data leakage and told reporters the following:
“Shared on the network information about the alleged “mass leak ”of LJ user data is not true – this is one of the clickbait news, the task of which is to rise interest to a third party”, — said representative of the Rambler Group holding, which owns LJ since 2016.
I just want to remind you that in Russia the attitude to the security of information of both their and foreign companies is quite specific. However, not only in Russia – remember the scandal with the ToTok Arab messenger.
