Recent studies have uncovered the largest data breach ever recorded, compromising 16 billion account credentials, including passwords for Apple, Google, Facebook, and other popular services.
According to a report from Forbes, this information has been provided by Ukrinform.
Vilius Petkauskas from the media outlet Cybernews, which is investigating the incident, stated that «30 datasets have been identified, each containing from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records». In total, the number of compromised records has reached 16 billion, he added.
Researchers suspect that the massive password leak is the work of several cybercriminal groups.
This breach includes billions of login credentials for social networks, VPN services, developer portals, and user accounts from all major providers. According to experts, this data had not appeared in previous leaks, with only one database containing 184 million passwords being known earlier.
«This is not just a leak – it’s a massive exploitation plan. This is not a rehashing of old leaks, but fresh and usable intelligence that could be exploited on a large scale,» the researchers said.
The report highlights that these credentials serve as a «zero point» for account takeover and phishing attacks.
Most of this intelligence is structured in a URL format, followed by login data and passwords. Researchers note that the information contained opens doors to «virtually any online service,» from Apple and Facebook to GitHub, Telegram, and various government agencies.
«The fact that the credentials in question are highly valuable for widely used services has far-reaching consequences,» said Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of Keeper Security.
He added that this is why 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 potential unauthorized access to technology data related to the ChatGPT developer by a group linked to the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.
