The Mother of all Data Breaches

26 billion records leaked in the Mother of all Data Breaches

The New York Daily Post reported in late January 2024 that a huge data leak had taken place.

This is one of the largest data breaches to date. It could compromise billions of accounts worldwide, prompting concerns of widespread cybercrime.

Dubbed the “Mother of All Breaches,” the massive leak revealed 26 billion records. This includes records from popular sites like LinkedIn, Snapchat, Venmo, Adobe and X (formerly Twitter). Experts are calling this the biggest leak in history.

Data Types

The compromised data includes more than just login credentials, according to experts. Much of it is “sensitive,” making it “valuable for malicious actors,” per Cybernews. They initially discovered the breach on an unsecured website.

“The dataset is extremely dangerous as threat actors could leverage the aggregated data for a wide range of attacks. This would include identity theft, sophisticated phishing schemes, targeted cyberattacks, and unauthorised access to personal and sensitive accounts.” The researchers comprised of cybersecurity expert Bob Dyachenko and the team at Cybernews.

Cybernews’ head of security research, Mantas Sasnauskas, told the Daily Mail that “probably the majority of the population have been affected.”

In better news, 12 terabytes of data, which appears to be a meticulous compilation of many breaches (COMB), does not contain anything “newly stolen.”

However, Cybernews said it “discovered billions upon billions of exposed records on an open instance.” This means it is open for anyone to see.

Responsibility

It is unlikely that the responsible person will ever be identified. It could have been a data broker, a criminal or someone who can access huge amounts of data.

The largest amount of data exposed is from the Chinese instant messaging platform Tencent. The site had 1.4 billion records compromised.

Weibo trailed behind with 504 million records leaked. MySpace had 360 million. Then came Twitter with 281 million and music streaming platform Deezer with 258 million. Finally, LinkedIn with 251 million.

Other major sites include Adobe, Telegram and Dropbox, as well as lesser-known sites like Doordash, Canva and Snapchat and various government organisations around the world, including those in the US.

Find out if you are affected

There is a searchable list available to check if your data has been leaked.

However, the risks are high, particularly where people use the same password for multiple accounts. Cybernews said, “If users use the same passwords for their Netflix account as they do for their Gmail account, attackers can use this to pivot towards other, more sensitive accounts.”

We have long since advocated different passwords, MFA, and not to use easily guessed passwords. The use of password managers is imperative.

Take Action

This may affect you, or perhaps not. Change your passwords! Also, if you have accounts with the businesses affected that you are no longer using, close them! You can’t avoid being involved in data breaches. But you can take action.