According to security researchers, a large database that contained at least 26 billion compromised records was found on an unprotected webpage. Forbes claims that the “Mother of all Breaches” is probably the largest breach discovered to date. Sensitive data from a number of websites, including Dropbox, LinkedIn, and Twitter, is contained in the database. According to Forbes’ report, researchers from Security Discovery and Cybernews found the breach, which has a size of up to 12 terabytes. The research team thinks a malicious actor or data broker assembled the database.
“Threat actors could leverage the aggregated data for a wide range of attacks, including identity theft, sophisticated phishing schemes, targeted cyberattacks, and unauthorized access to personal and sensitive accounts,” the investigators stated.
The leaked data also has records of users from Chinese messaging giant Tencent and social media platform Weibo. Records from Adobe, Canva and Telegram have also been found.
The researchers stated that records from various US and foreign government agencies can be located, which is concerning.
The good news is that the amount of new data in the database is quite small. According to the researchers, the information was gathered from thousands of prior hacks and data leaks, as Forbes reported.
The fact that it contains multiple username and password combinations, on the other hand, is concerning. This data can be used by cybercriminals to launch targeted cyberattacks, sophisticated phishing schemes, identity theft, and unauthorised access to private and sensitive accounts.
“We should never underestimate what cybercriminals can achieve with such limited information. Victims need to be aware of the consequences of stolen passwords and make the necessary security updates in response,” Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, told the outlet.
In 2019, nearly one billion records were leaked from an unsecured database created by Verifications.io. At the time, it was one of the biggest and most damaging leaks ever.
Some of the other biggest leaks came from MySpace (360 million), Twitter (281 million), LinkedIn (251 million) and AdultFriendFinder (220 million).
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