Six Large Data Dumps Add Fuel to Collection #1s Fire

Collection #1 was just the beginning. Researchers at Recorded Future have uncovered six more dark-web data dumps to complete the set — and possibly hint at even more password databases circulating.

Last month, security researcher Troy Hunt reported on finding Collection #1 -- a set of 12,000 files containing stolen email and password combinations, uploaded to New Zealands MEGA cloud hosting service. Despite setting a record for the largest collection of personal data found, however, Collection #1 -- as its name implies -- turned out to be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. (See
Collection #1 Repository Totals 87GB of Stolen Email Addresses & Passwords
.)
More recently, researchers at Recorded Future
reported
finding a dark-web forum post by someone using the handle Clorox, in which s/he claimed that the Collection #1 discovered by Hunt was but a fraction of the original data dump. Cloroxs post went on to provide links to seven separate databases of user authentication information; Collection #1 was just one of these databases -- and was not even among the largest.
Once duplicates were accounted for, researchers found that the six new data dumps contain
almost triple
the number of user records as Collection #1 does.
Four of the remaining six data dumps were named Collection #2 through Collection #5, respectively; the other two were respectively dubbed ANTIPUBLIC #1 and AP MYR & ZABUGOR #2. Whereas the much publicized Collection #1 bears slightly more than 87GB of data, Collection #2 contains a whopping 528.5GB of data. (Coming in second? Collection #4, at 178.58GB. The third-largest is ANTIPUBLIC #1, with slightly over 102GB of data.) Altogether, the seven collections comprise nearly a terabyte of authentication data -- combinations of email addresses and passwords, combinations of usernames and passwords, and combinations of cellphone numbers and passwords.
The ROI of passwords
Individually, these password credentials arent worth very much on the dark web -- as little as
two millionths of a cent per password
. Thats partly because these record dumps are from older breaches. But what probably represents a changed password on a major site may represent a reused, still-active password on a niche site that the user hasnt logged into in years. And, in the case of unchanged and reused passwords on major sites, the individual return on investment for resale can skyrocket to as high as
several dollars
(to say nothing of the much larger value that might be extracted from targeted or
innovative do-baddery
).
This kind of data also enables various email scams against breached users -- particularly, a relatively nascent twist on an old sextortion scheme. Since at least this past summer, cyber criminals began sending out emails with the recipients hacked password from an old data breach in the subject line of the email. As cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs and others
reported
, the emails body said that the sender knew the recipients password because s/he had supposedly hacked their device and secretly taken video of them
in flagrante delicto
while viewing an adult website. The email went on to demand $X in Bitcoin within a certain time window on threat of releasing the video to the recipients contacts.
It is easy to see how a similar approach could be applied to, say, standard phishing emails.
Not all passwords are equal
More broadly, each record dump and aggregate thereof gives the bad guys as well as the good guys additional data points on what the most popular passwords are. (Collection #1 alone contained 772,904,991 unique email addresses, but only 21,222,975 unique passwords; that means that for each password in Collection #1, a
mean average
of more than 36 users shared it.) Sure, 123456 and password are solidly perennial, and admin and google have their typically niche use cases, but identifying
popular alternatives
-- like princess, monkey, donald
and even jordan23
-- can give threat actors as well as researchers better insight into how users commonly think when creating their credentials.
Similarly, each new dump allows would-be hackers to discount -- or, at least, revalue -- certain seemingly unique passwords. For instance, in a recently revealed data breach of web-forum company VerticalScope, several strange passwords were unduly popular. 18atcskd2w, used by 91,103 separate user accounts, took the #2 most popular password across all 1,100-something web forums that VerticalScope operates, right after 123456 at #1 and leading over password at #3. The fourth-most popular password in the VerticalScope breach was the similarly unintuitive 3rjs1la7qe. But,
as security researcher Graham Cluley postulates
, the only plausible way that such clearly randomly generated passwords could be so common would be by way of reuse among bot accounts, such as those created to spam forums and website comments sections. Accordingly, those kinds of passwords are unlikely to gain access to a real persons Facebook account or company credentials.
The publicity surrounding newly discovered credential collections likewise gives researchers insight into what the bad guys are up to -- and what questions remain unanswered. An obvious one in this case: If Collection #1, as found by Hunt, represented just the beginning of a much larger collection of data, then how many more ANTIPUBLIC and AP MYR & ZABUGOR collections are there?
Related posts:
Fortnite Players Lob Shots at Epic Games Over Hacked Accounts
Data Breach Can Affect Companys Long-Term Stock Price
Microsoft Looks to End the Era of Security Passwords
— Joe Stanganelli is managing director at research and consulting firm Blackwood King LC. In addition to being an attorney and consultant, he has spent several years analyzing and writing about business and technology trends. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeStanganelli.

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Six Large Data Dumps Add Fuel to Collection #1s Fire