The alternative Android app store Aptoide has lost 20 million user credentials, including the email address and the encrypted password they use to log in, the operators say.

According to the data leak specialists at Have I been Pwned?, these email addresses and passwords have now surfaced online. This data has been added to the leak checking platform, meaning you can now check using your email address to see if you're affected.

If so, you should change your Aptoide password immediately. While the leaked passwords are encrypted, the encryption from the Aptoide app store is said to be an insecure one that is relatively easy to break.

One of a few alternative app stores, Aptoide is typically used to find and install apps that can't be found on Google's Play Store.

If you use the same password on Aptoide as you do on other platforms, you should change it there too.

Password experts say if you don't want to use a password manager, it's best to use individual passwords for each service, even if it's hard to remember them all.

One tip for creating your own, safe passwords is to choose a random sentence that you can remember, and then choose the first letter or number or character of each word and make the combination of these your password.

An example of this could be: "Safe passwords can be easily created 90% of the time!" The password is then: Spcbec90pcott!

 - dpa