Breach, Threat Management, Data Security, Threat Management

Millions of college credentials spotted on dark web, report

Researchers have found 13,930,176 email addresses and passwords belonging to faculty, staff, students and alumni of major universities across the country on the dark web.

The University of Michigan topped the list of higher education institutions with the most credentials on the dark web with 122,556 accounts, followed by a host of other Big 10 universities including Ohio State, University of Nebraska, Pennsylvania State University, University of Minnesota,  and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, according to a recent report published by Digital Citizen's Alliance.

Researchers said that when broken down by state, the largest number of credentials posted came from schools in California, followed by New York, Michigan, Texas, and Pennsylvania which are all among the top 10 most populous states.

"Stolen credentials can be the first step down the path to more sensitive personal information, access to valuable intellectual property, and potentially identity theft," researchers said in the report, adding that some individuals may have been driven by revenge or just mayhem and destruction.

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