184 Million Sensitive Login Credentials From Top Platforms Like Google, Apple, and Facebook Leaked Online

The digital world in today’s era has made everything accessible, especially information that is constantly being stored and shared across countless platforms. Talking about banking apps to heath services to media accounts and government portals, everything is accessible and hence the result is security or password breach. Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler recently conducted a research study that uncovered massive trove of sensitive data left unprotected on the internet.

She said that there are so much sensitive information floating on the internet and it is containing alarming 184 million unique account credentials.

Here’s What She Found Out:

Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler revealed that the database that is stored as in plain text and without any encryption or password protection is containing 184 million unique account credentials. These credentials include usernames, passwords, email addresses, and URLs for various popular platforms such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Highly Sensitive Data Also Found:

Other than this issues, what’s more alarming and raises concern is that it also include extremely sensitive data. For example these data stored contains financial accounts, health platforms, and even information related to government portals. If this kind of data is available online, then it surely raises concern and cybercriminals can carry out devastating attacks

Infostealer Malware Likely to Blame

What Fowler blamed is one of the unique Malware called “infostealer.” It is a type of malware that is designed to harvest personal information from users. This Malware is likely behind the data collection and hence it becomes clear that if your data is accessed by this Malware then it could be explosed to phishing scams, identity theft, and other malicious activities.

Database Ownership Still Unclear

Despite several attempts from Fowler, it is still unclear and he is unable to determine whether the creation this database was legitimate or carried out with malicious intent. The hosting provider of this malware has not provided any details or identity of the person or organization behind it. Nevertheless, it has since taken down the public access to the data.

Here’s How to Stay Safe

In order to reduce your risk of being impacted by data breaches and infostealer malware, you can follow these steps or best practices that will help you in safeguarding your sensitive and personal data.

• Use strong and unique passwords
• Avoid reusing passwords across different accounts.
• Update your passwords regularly to reduce the chance of long-term exposure.
• Use a password manager
• Enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication
• Regularly monitor your accounts for suspicious activity
• Schedule antivirus scans to run automatically
• Stay alert for phishing attempts and never click on links, QR codes, or attachments from unknown senders.
• Verify unusual
• Clear out old emails and attachments that contain sensitive personal information