Cybersecurity experts have issued a warning, claiming to have found a database that has over 26 billion leaked data records. These records include user information from popular platforms including Tencent, Snapchat, Weibo, LinkedIn, and X (previously Twitter).
Named the ‘Mother of All Breaches’ (MOAB) by the researchers, this colossal data leak was the largest data leak discovered to date.
The information contained in this 12-terabyte (TB) data dump was found by security experts from Cybernews and Security Discovery.
Although the bulk of the information in the stolen dataset originates from earlier data breaches, the researchers asserted that it also probably includes newly discovered information that has never been disclosed before.
More information than only login credentials is exposed in the hack. The paper states that a large portion of the compromised data is “sensitive,” making it “valuable for malicious actors.”
The MOAB contains 3,800 folders, each of which represents a distinct data breach, and together they include 26 billion records.
“The dataset is extremely dangerous as threat actors could leverage the aggregated data for a wide range of attacks, including identity theft, sophisticated phishing schemes, targeted cyberattacks, and unauthorised access to personal and sensitive accounts,” the investigators stated.
Tencent QQ, a Chinese instant messaging program, is said to have the most records—1.4 billion, according to the study.
Weibo (504 million records), MySpace (360 million), Twitter (281 million), Deezer (258 million), Linkedin (251 million), AdultFriendFinder (220 million), Adobe (153 million), Canva (143 million), VK (101 million), Daily Motion (86 million), Dropbox (69 million), Telegram (41 million), and numerous other platforms appear to have hundreds of millions of records.
“We are working to fully investigate these claims and we have seen no evidence that LinkedIn’s systems were breached,” the company stated in a statement.
Records from numerous government agencies in the US, Brazil, Germany, the Philippines, Turkey, and other nations are also included in the leak.
Attackers may utilize this to shift their focus to other, more sensitive accounts if individuals use the same passwords for both their Gmail and Netflix accounts. In addition, customers whose data was compromised by gigantic MOAB can fall prey to spear-phishing schemes or get a lot of spam emails, according to the researchers.
