in-cyprus 21 June 2025
Sixteen billion passwords for Apple, Facebook, Google and other social media accounts, as well as government services, were leaked in what researchers are calling the largest data breach ever.
The leak exposed 16 billion login credentials and passwords, prompting Google to tell billions of users to change their passwords and the FBI to warn Americans against opening suspicious links in SMS messages, according to a report published Thursday in Forbes.
Researchers at Cybernews investigating the leak found “30 exposed datasets containing from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records each”.
All but one of these datasets have not been previously reported as being exposed, meaning the data impacted is considered new.
“This is not just a leak – it’s a blueprint for mass exploitation,” the researchers said. These credentials represent ground zero for phishing attacks and account takeover. “These aren’t just old breaches being recycled,” they warned, “this is fresh, weaponizable intelligence at scale”.
Most of the intelligence was formatted as a URL followed by logins and passwords. That information then allowed access to “pretty much any online service imaginable, from Apple, Facebook, and Google, to GitHub, Telegram, and various government services”.
Whilst concerning, the researchers found the datasets were exposed very briefly – with enough time for discovery but not long enough for researchers to determine who was controlling the data.
Researchers have determined the leak is the work of multiple infostealers, but it remains impossible to tell how many people or accounts were exposed, according to Cybernews.
Experts urge people to invest in password management solutions, not share their passwords and to stay alert in the event their passwords are compromised.
(information from The Independent)
