Shocking security breach of 16 billion logins includes Apple IDs

Exposed records are being made available to threat agents on a massive scale.

- BY ROMAN LOYOLA

Cybernews reported (fave.co/4nufaNO) in late June on its research that resulted in the online discovery of 30 datasets, including 16 billion records of user login information for “pretty much any online service imaginable,” such as Apple, Facebook, and Google.

The records include a URL and login information. Since this data is what malware often collects, it appears that these records are a result of numerous information theft attacks. Cybernews states that the datasets do include overlapping records, but the enormity of the data collection makes it difficult to compare individual records to conclude how many users have been exposed.

The exposed datasets have not been previously reported, except for one (fave.co/44aw6k4) discovered by Jeremiah Fowler that had 185 million unique usernames and passwords. The datasets are also made available temporarily and are taken down after some time. Cybernews states that new databases appear “every few weeks” with “fresh, weaponizable intelligence.” It is also not clear as to the origins of the datasets and who is behind the data collection.

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