Mother of All Breaches: 26B Records Exposed, Twitter, LinkedIn, and More Platforms Affected
Discover the 'Mother of all Breaches' exposing 26B records, impacting major platforms. Secure accounts now.
Cybersecurity researchers have come up with a new term, “Mother of all Breaches” which relates to a staggering revelation of exposure of more than 26 billion personal records. This leak of data has impacted various platforms like Dropbox, LinkedIn and Twitter. It is noteworthy that it seems like the largest-ever leak of data.
Forbes reported that the Security Discovery and CyberNews group of researchers discovered the breach. They found data of value 12 terabytes in an unsecured database. The leaked data comprise sensitive personal information of people. According to Researchers, this leak has the potential to upsurge in numerous cybercrime activities like unauthorized access to sensitive and personal accounts, targeted cyberattacks, sophisticated phishing schemes, and identity theft.
The compromised records found in the breach include 220 million from AdultFriendFinder, 251 million from LinkedIn, 281 million from Twitter, 360 million from MySpace, 504 million from Weibo, and 1.5 billion from Tencent’s QQ. The leak also exposes sensitive information from various government organizations in Turkey, the Philippines, Germany, Brazil, and the United States. Notably, the exposed data also include records from previous breaches.
Threats and Caution over Cybersecurity
A warning has been issued by the group of experts that the leaked compilation of records possesses the potential to pose a serious threat. However, the leaked database comprises numerous duplicate records as well. Particularly, the usernames and password combinations present in the database are concerning.
The global cybersecurity advisor for ESET, Jake Moore emphasized the depth of the situation the world is in currently. Thus, he advised the affected individuals and organizations to change their passwords to stronger ones. His advice is to be cautious against phishing emails. Jake also mentioned that all the accounts should be secured with two-factor authentication.
How to Know if Your Personal Data Is Compromised?
To check if personal data is compromised, individuals can make use of tools like Have I Been Pwned service or Cybernews’ data leak checker. Likewise, they can check if their “account information has been leaked in historic data breaches.”
Also Read:
Our Exclusive Story: The Dark Side of AI Creativity: Loab’s Impact on the Internet
