Researchers have confirmed a massive data breach revealing 16 billion account credentials, including passwords from major platforms like Apple, Google, and Facebook.
According to a report by Ukrinform, this was disclosed by Forbes.
Vilius Petkauskas from Cybernews, whose team has been investigating the breach since the beginning of the year, stated that they discovered «30 substantial data sets, each containing from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records». Overall, the number of compromised records has reached 16 billion, he added.
Researchers speculate that the extensive leak of passwords is the work of several cybercriminals.
This breach encompasses billions of login credentials for social media, VPN services, developer portals, and user accounts across all major providers. According to the researchers, this data has not appeared in leaks before; it is entirely new information. Only one database, containing 184 million passwords, was previously known.
«This is not just a leak – it’s a comprehensive plan for mass exploitation. This is not merely a rehash of old leaks; these are fresh, actionable intelligence data on a large scale», the researchers stated.
The report mentions that these credentials serve as a «zero point» for phishing attacks and account takeovers.
Most of this intelligence data is structured in a URL format, followed by the login details and password. According to the researchers, the information contained opens doors to virtually «any online service», from Apple, Facebook, and Google to GitHub, Telegram, and various government services.
«The fact that the credentials in question hold high value for widely used services has far-reaching implications», said Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of Keeper Security.
He added that it is crucial for consumers to invest in password management solutions and dark web monitoring tools.
As previously reported by Ukrinform, American companies Microsoft and OpenAI are investigating the potential unauthorized access to the technology data of the ChatGPT developer by a group associated with the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.
