26 billion personal records exposed on Twitter, LinkedIn and other platforms

In what is being referred to as the 'Mother of all Breaches' by cybersecurity researchers, over 26 billion personal records have been exposed affecting numerous platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Dropbox.  This data leak, uncovered by researchers is likely the largest ever recorded. An unsecured database containing a vast trove of data amounting to 12 terabytes was found by researchers from Security Discovery and CyberNews. 

The leaked information includes sensitive personal details that could potentially lead to a surge in cybercrime activities such as identity theft, sophisticated phishing schemes, targeted cyberattacks, and unauthorized access to personal and sensitive accounts. 

Among the compromised records were 1.5 billion from Tencent's QQ, 504 million from Weibo, 360 million from MySpace, 281 million from Twitter, 251 million from LinkedIn, and 220 million from AdultFriendFinder.

Notably, the leak also encompasses records from various government organisations across the United States, Brazil, Germany, the Philippines, Turkey, and others. 

The leaked data, which appears to be a compilation of records from thousands of previous breaches and data leaks, poses a significant threat, according to experts. Although there may be numerous duplicate records within the database, the presence of usernames and password combinations is particularly concerning. This could lead to an increase in credential stuffing attacks, where cybercriminals use stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access to multiple user accounts.