How to check if you're affected by data breach compromising 183,000,000 email addresses
A new data breach has been identified by cybersecurity experts and over 183,000,000 people have been affected, but thankfully there's a method you can use to check if your email address and password have been compromised.
The internet can be like the wild west sometimes when it comes to data breaches, as a website that you signed up to over a decade ago could cause your information to be stolen all because you entered your email and password.
It's why cybersecurity experts urge you to keep your passwords different for every website you sign up to, as if you use one password for everything, having that become compromised would effectively be opening up your doors to scammers and bad actors.
Some ethical hackers have even urged people to keep their log in information offline at all costs, resorting to pen and paper methods to keep your digital data safe, yet you might still want to check if any of your data has become compromised in recent breaches.
What was the recent breach?
While there have been countless data breaches across the years, one of the most significant occurred in April 2025, and it was only recently that all of the affected were tracked, as per PCWorld.
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According to tracking website HaveIBeenPwned, threat intelligence company Synthient has managed to aggregate billions of records from various internet sources across the year, tracking down 183 million unique email addresses that have been breached across a number of websites in the past 12 months.
This compromised data included both email addresses and passwords, and while not every one involved both, it's certainly enough to warrant safety measures such as changing your passwords and enabling two-factor authentication.
How to check if you've been affected
The easiest way to see if your email addresses, passwords, and any other information has been compromised in this recent data collection is to check with HaveIBeenPwned, as it allows you to see a comprehensive history of when your data has been leaked or sold.
While 183 million email addresses were found in the recent search, the website has managed to record 15,320,416,177 accounts in total across its entire history which have been compromised, so there's a good chance that your email has been involved in at least one breach in the past.
If you see any recent ones from this year then it's probably a good idea to take action with the aforementioned safety measures, and you might also want to change any other passwords that might be similar or identical to what has been breached.
You can also activate a notification system with the website where you'll be informed if your email pops up in any future breaches, which can help you act quickly without needing to constantly check in.