184 Million Online Accounts Leaked Across Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin

Let me just say it: I’m livid. Angry. Infuriated. Ticked off. And if you use the internet in any capacity (and let’s be honest, we all do), even across Iowa, Illinois, or Wisconsin (or the U.S. in general), you probably should be too. Here's why...

This week, cybersecurity experts uncovered a leaked database with over 184 million usernames and passwords. Read that again: 184 million usernames and passwords. They were just sitting there, completely unprotected, according to recent reports. Accounts for Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Nintendo, Snapchat, WordPress, and loads more. And yes, my family has accounts with nearly every single one of those services. Guess what? You probably do too.

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As a parent, I’m beyond frustrated. My kids' gaming accounts, like Roblox, (which are linked to mine), our Nintendo logins, our Amazon purchases, my personal and work email, my Xbox and Microsoft account — it’s all potentially out there now. What should’ve been a normal week is now a full-blown password-resetting marathon, and I get to play tech support for my entire household. It SUCKS!

As a professional who uses WordPress for work, I’m even more fed up. I rely on that platform every day, and now I have to worry about whether my work credentials could have been compromised, too. In fact, most companies should be preemptive and just go on the password resetting spree now! And no, it's not convenient, but if you don't, it’s risky to say the least: for me, my family, and the company where I work.

So, who’s to blame here? That’s the most infuriating part: no one’s taking responsibility. According to Wired, the data was found on an unsecured ElasticSearch server, but we don’t know who put it there, who stole it, or how long it had been exposed. What we do know is that this wasn’t some small leak. No! This was a careless, reckless handling of information that never should’ve been collected in the first place. Whether it’s cybercriminals or shady data scrapers, someone treated our privacy like garbage, and now we’re the ones dealing with the fallout.

What makes me even more outraged is that this all happened without our consent. Someone out there collected and stored my data. Scratch that, OUR data! Millions of people’s data! Not only that, but it didn’t even bother to secure it. Not a lock, not a password, no dual authentication. Nothing. Just a wide-open door for hackers to exploit, which they did and are.

And yes, this database even had .gov email addresses in it, meaning government data could be at risk as well. This isn’t just some tech glitch. It’s a security disaster, and we’re all left to clean up the mess. So yeah, I’m not just annoyed. I’m livid. Because when our digital lives get violated like this, we deserve more than a shrug and a headline. We deserve accountability. Well, here I go, back to reset my passwords for a billionth time... and you should too.