'EXTREMELY DANGEROUS' LEAK REVEALS 26 BILLION ACCOUNT RECORDS STOLEN FROM TWITTER, LINKEDIN, MORE: 'MOTHER OF ALL BREACHES'

Matt Case - January 23rd, 2024 - 7:16am PST 

NEW YORK, NY - In what is being regarded as one of the largest data breaches to date, concerns are arising about the potential for widespread cybercrime as billions of accounts worldwide may be compromised.

This colossal breach, ominously named the "Mother of All Breaches," has exposed a staggering 26 billion records. Among the affected sites are prominent platforms such as LinkedIn, Snapchat, Venmo, Adobe, and X (formerly known as Twitter), marking it as the most extensive data leak in history, according to experts.

Security specialists point out that the compromised data extends beyond just login credentials, with a significant portion classified as "sensitive," rendering it highly attractive to malicious actors. The breach was initially discovered on an unprotected website by Cybernews.

Cybersecurity expert Bob Dyachenko, along with the team at Cybernews, emphasized the extreme danger posed by this dataset, highlighting its potential use by threat actors for various forms of attacks. These include identity theft, sophisticated phishing schemes, targeted cyberattacks, and unauthorized access to personal and sensitive accounts.

Mantas Sasnauskas, the Head of Security Research at Cybernews, told the Daily Mail that the impact of this breach is far-reaching, affecting potentially the majority of the global population.