Hacker compiles biggest collection of stolen passwords of all time. How to check if yours is one of them.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Today, we are alerting you to a number so large, cybersecurity experts can’t agree on an adjectival phrase big enough to characterize the enormity of it.

Eight point four billion. That’s the number of passwords a hacker compiled and posted on the dark web. The headlines of several news sites tell the tale.

Cybernews calls it the “largest password compilation of all time.” Yahoo says it’s “the mother of all password leaks.” This is the headline from Consumer Affairs: “Password hack breaks records."

And this is not hyperbole. Consider this. There are about 4.7 billion people on the web across the world. So, this hacker has collected the passwords of the entire online global population almost two times over. With each hack, this guy or gal has been quietly collecting and compiling stolen passwords for years.

Cyber experts say with this compilation, combined with collections of emails and usernames, cyber thieves could create a criminal catalog to launch countless attacks across the globe.

It’s safe to assume that your email address and/or password have likely already been compromised. Here’s how you find out. There are several good websites where you can enter your email address or password to find out if it has been posted on some hacker site on the dark web.

• Avast’s Hack Check
• F-Secure Identity Theft Checker
• Haveibeenpwned
• Cybernews’ Personal data leak checker and leaked password checker

If you find out your information has been compromised, don’t panic. Instead, change all your passwords. It’s a good idea to check more than one website because each may be scanning different sites on the dark web.