Researchers find massive database with 26 billion records leaked from Facebook, LinkedIn and others: Report

Cyber ​​security experts have discovered a huge amount of exposed records in an unsecured database, the owner of which cannot be easily identified. According to a report by CyberNews, this data breach, dubbed the ‘MOAB-Mother of All Breaches’, involved privately sold databases, reindexed leaks and breaches.

The size of the database is estimated to be around 12TB – containing approximately 26 billion records. However, the identity of the owner of the above database remains uncertain. It is unclear whether the owner is a malicious actor, a data broker, or an individual working with substantial amounts of data.

CyberNews quoted the researchers as saying, “The dataset is extremely dangerous because threat actors can leverage the collected data for a wide range of attacks, including identity theft, sophisticated phishing schemes, targeted cyberattacks and unauthorized access to personal and sensitive accounts.” Can pick it up.” , It is also important to note that this database does not necessarily include any new data; Instead, it is said to be composed of a compilation of data obtained from multiple breaches.

What is the concern here?

The report says there’s a good chance that many of those 26 billion records are probably duplicates. But even if they are, there’s more to the leaked data than just passwords and usernames. In fact, most of the data is sensitive material that could be really valuable to bad actors.

That being said, the most important and arguably most worrisome aspect lies in the ability for malicious actors to somehow obtain this data, allowing them to conduct a series of “credential-surfing attacks” using billions of usernames and passwords. Can be made capable of carrying out. Inside.

“If users use the same password for their Netflix account as they do for their Gmail account, attackers can use it to bypass other, more sensitive accounts. “In addition, users whose data is included in SuperMassive MOAB may become victims of spear-phishing attacks or receive high levels of spam emails,” the researchers said.

Leaked data reportedly includes records of these tech giants

Based on the report, Tencent holds the top position with 1.5 billion leaked records to its name, followed by Weibo, MySpace and Twitter (X) with 504 million, 360 million and 281 million records respectively. LinkedIn, Zynga, NetEase, Adobe and Canva, among others, are also reportedly present in the database. Apart from this, it is also said that it contains records of many governments of America, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Philippines and other countries.