Massive data breach exposes 184 million passwords for Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and more

Based on his analysis, Fowler determined the data was captured by some kind of infostealer malware

I'm not really sure why the author would expect the file to have any type of password protection on it it's just a regular dump of malware gains. Kind of feels a little click-baoty for the technically challenged

It sounds like the database was filled with unhashed passwords.So this would have been stolen from the users side. Or from some unbelievably stupid developers that still store their shit in clear text.

Everyone should use a password manager.

Personally, I use bitwarden and i'd highly recommend it.

For any users using password managers, this beach would be no more than a mild inconvenience.