The news of a massive 16 billion data breach that exposed login credentials from Apple, Google, Facebook has made record as one of the largest data breaches in history.
Cybernews reports that records from over 30 databases have been stolen, with each containing up to 3.5 billion passwords from social media and VPN logins to corporate platforms and developer platforms.
The recent data breach contains a massive amount of information that can affect billions of online account, as cybercriminals now have access to a mass amount of login credentials. This puts users at risk of further malicious behavior from phishing attacks, social engineering and identity theft.
Here are the latest updates on what we know about the data breach, how to find out if you're affected and how to stay safe.
What's exposed?
Currently, nearly all major platforms have been affected by the breach, including Apple accounts (formerly Apple IDs), Gmail, Facebook accounts and GitHub as well as instant messaging platforms like Telegram and both commercial and government platform portals.
The data appears to contain URLs, usernames and passwords. However, with the unfathomable size of the data that's been exposed, there's no way to tell how many accounts are currently under threat.
The stolen data appears to come from several infostealers, and while the datasets are new, the sheer amount of info could also be from a mix of different datasets from previous breaches, including a database containing 184 million records discovered in May this year.
