\n<\/p>\n
Internet users have been told to change their passwords and upgrade their digital security after researchers claimed to have revealed the scale of sensitive information \u2013 16bn login records \u2013 potentially available to cybercriminals.<\/p>\n
Researchers at Cybernews, an online tech publication, said they had found 30 datasets stuffed with credentials harvested from malicious software known as \u201cinfostealers\u201d and leaks.<\/p>\n
The researchers said the datasets were exposed \u201conly briefly\u201d but amounted to 16bn login records, with an unspecified number of overlapping records \u2013 meaning it is difficult to say definitively how many accounts or people have been exposed.<\/p>\n
Cybernews said the credentials could open access to services including Facebook, Apple and Google \u2013 although there had been no \u201ccentralised data breach\u201d at those companies.<\/p>\n
Bob Diachenko, the Ukrainian cybersecurity specialist behind the research, said the datasets had become temporarily available after being poorly stored on remote servers \u2013 before being removed again. Diachenko said he was able to download the files and would aim to contact individuals and companies that had been exposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take some time of course because it is an enormous amount of data,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, other cybersecurity experts said the data was likely to have already been in circulation and contain multiple repetitions.<\/p>\n
One expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: \u201cWe\u2019re sceptical of the data, particularly how much of it is just repetition of the same information. It\u2019s difficult to verify it without having the data.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diachenko said the information he had seen in infostealer logs included login URLs to Apple, Facebook and Google login pages. Apple and Facebook\u2019s parent, Meta, have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
A Google spokesperson said the data reported by Cybernews did not stem from a Google data breach \u2013 and recommended people use tools such as Google\u2019s password manager to protect their accounts.<\/p>\n
Internet users are also able to check if their email has been compromised in a data breach by using the website haveibeenpwned.com. Cybernews said the information seen in the datasets followed a \u201cclear structure: URL, followed by login details and a password\u201d.<\/p>\n
Diachenko said the data appeared to be \u201c85% infostealers\u201d and about 15% from historical data breaches such as a leak suffered by LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
Experts said the research underlined the need to update passwords regularly and adopt tough security measures such as multifactor authentication \u2013 or combining a password with another form of verification such as a code texted from a phone. Other recommended measures include passkeys, a password-free method championed by Google and Facebook\u2019s owner, Meta.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile you\u2019d be right to be startled at the huge volume of data exposed in this leak it\u2019s important to note that there is no new threat here: this data will have already likely have been in circulation,\u201d said Peter Mackenzie, the director of incident response and readiness at the cybersecurity firm Sophos.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie said the research underlined the scale of data that can be accessed by online criminals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are understanding is the depth of information available to cybercriminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt is an important reminder to everyone to take proactive steps to update passwords, use a password manager and employ multifactor authentication to avoid credential issues in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toby Lewis, the global head of threat analysis at the cybersecurity firm Darktrace, said the data flagged in the research is hard to verify but infostealers \u2013 the malware reportedly behind the data theft \u2013 are \u201cvery much real and in use by bad actors\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThey don\u2019t access a user\u2019s account but instead scrape information from their browser cookies and metadata. If you\u2019re following good practice of using password managers, turning on two-factor authentication and checking suspicious logins, this isn\u2019t something you should be greatly worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cybernews said none of the datasets have been reported previously barring one revealed in May with 184m records. It described the datasets as a \u201cblueprint for mass exploitation\u201d including \u201caccount takeover, identity theft, and highly targeted phishing\u201d.<\/p>\n
The researchers added: \u201cThe only silver lining here is that all of the datasets were exposed only briefly: long enough for researchers to uncover them, but not long enough to find who was controlling vast amounts of data.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, said the news was a reminder to carry out \u201cpassword spring cleaning\u201d. He added: \u201cThe fact that everything seems to be breached eventually is why there is such a big push for zero trust security measures.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Internet users have been told to change their passwords and upgrade their digital security after researchers claimed to have revealed the scale of sensitive information \u2013 16bn login records \u2013 potentially available to cybercriminals. Researchers at Cybernews, an online tech publication, said they had found 30 datasets stuffed with credentials harvested from malicious software known<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[1149,1147,270,1151,539,1145,1150,1148,1146],"class_list":{"0":"post-9188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-16bn","9":"tag-advised","10":"tag-change","11":"tag-cybercrime","12":"tag-exposed","13":"tag-internet","14":"tag-logins","15":"tag-passwords","16":"tag-users"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}