We all know that passwords are important. They need to be unique and hard to guess, and even though our phones will pick good ones for us, it can be hard to let them.

At least for me. I’m probably just old, but some part of me doesn’t trust the phone to remember what its picked any more than I can.

That said, it might be time to go in and change all of yours – especially if you have used “Have I Been Pwned” in the past.

The website (if you’re lucky enough not to know) lets you put in your email to see whether or not your passwords and other user information have been compromised (and where).

Data defender Troy Hunt says it’s one of the largest collections of breached data he’s ever seen. It contains more than 71 million email addresses and 100 million passwords.

More than 400,000 Have I Been Pwned subscribers have been impacted by the breach.

Not only that, but around 30% of the data seems to be new.

“When a third of the email addresses have never been seen before, that’s statistically significant. This isn’t just the usual collection of repurposed lists wrapped up with a brand-new bow on it and passed off as the next big thing; it’s a significant volume of data.”

He says that while some of the data does appear to be very old, that doesn’t mean it all is. That said, if you’re still using the same passwords from years ago, it could still negatively impact you.

And lots of people still recycle or cycle through a small list of favored passwords.

“Definitely get out in front of this one as early as you can by replacing your recycled credentials with a password manager.“

I just knew he was going to say that.

I guess it’s time to get hip to it and all that.

If you enjoyed that story, check out what happened when a guy gave ChatGPT $100 to make as money as possible, and it turned out exactly how you would expect.