Cybercriminals use specialized software to "check" these lists against popular websites—like Facebook, Netflix, or banking portals—to see which combinations still work [2, 4]. Once an account is "cracked," it can be sold on the dark web, used for identity theft, or leveraged for spam and phishing campaigns [1, 4]. Risks and Prevention

Enabling MFA adds a layer of security that a password alone cannot bypass [2, 5].

To protect yourself from being included in such lists, security experts recommend:

Using a different, complex password for every single service [5].