Large Database of 26 Billion Leaked Records From LinkedIn, X, and Other Sources Discovered by Researchers: Report

Cybersecurity specialists have found a large number of publicly accessible documents in an unprotected database, the owner of which is difficult to identify. Cybernews said that this data breach, known as the “Mother of All Breaches” or “MOAB,” includes breaches, reindexed leaks, and databases that were sold privately.

The database is said to be over 12 terabytes in size, with around 26 billion entries in it. Still unknown, however, is who exactly owns the aforementioned database. It’s unknown whether the owner is a data broker, a malevolent actor, or a regular person handling significant volumes of data.

“The researchers were quoted by Cybernews as saying that 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 unauthorized access to personal and sensitive accounts.” It’s also crucial to remember that this database is purportedly a collection of information from many breaches rather than actually having any brand-new data in it.

What A Concerning Thing About This?

According to the analysis, a significant portion of those 26 billion records are most likely duplicates. Even said, there are many more items in the compromised data than simply identities and passwords. The majority of the data is really sensitive information that might be quite useful to unscrupulous parties.

Having said that, the most important—and maybe most worrisome—part of this is the possibility that bad actors would manage to get their hands on this data and use the billions of identities and passwords it contains to launch a slew of “credential-surfing attacks.”

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, people whose data was compromised by the supermassive MOAB can fall prey to spear-phishing schemes or get a lot of spam emails, the researchers said.

Records Purportedly From These Tech Giants Are Among the Leaked Data

Tencent tops the list with 1.5 billion leaked recordings, according to the survey. Weibo, MySpace, and Twitter (X) come in second and third, with 504 million, 360 million, and 281 million records, respectively. There are supposedly more in the database, such as Adobe, Canva, Zynga, LinkedIn, and NetEase. Moreover, documents from various administrations in the US, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, the Philippines, and other countries are allegedly included in it.