A gigantic spam list with over 710 million email addresses and personal info linked to them was found by computer security experts. The emails were stolen by Onliner, a spambot.

A Paris security researcher named Benkow first discovered the list.

It contains two separate vaults of data: one containing email addresses alone, with the second actually containing passwords and addresses.

The email breach is the largest spambot dump in the history of the world, experts say. With the constantly evolving and changing climate of Internet privacy, it continues to become more complicated for cyber security experts and their ilk. Government entities, institutional entities, corporate powers, and cyber criminals have also stepped up efforts to steal personal information online or spy on people.

One could look at this and say we’re on the precipice of a lot of personal information going to a lot of different places: this is the inevitable consequence of surveillance.

(Image credit: RT)

To check and see if your email is on the list, visit haveibeenpwned.com: an anti-hacker site run by Troy Hunt, an Australian computer security expert. His site has the details of violated email addresses and leaked passwords.

If your email is on the list, you should probably change your password, if not completely stop using it. It would also be wise to change your other passwords if they match the password to your email.

In addition, watch out for suspicious emails labelled “invoice” in your inbox: they may be laced with malicious software intended to steal your bank details.

The Onliner spambot pointed to an IP address in the Netherlands, suggesting the email accounts have been published on a web server hosted in the country.

Processing the largest list of data ever seen in @haveibeenpwned courtesy of a nasty spambot. I'm in there, you probably are too.

— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) August 28, 2017