Apple, Facebook & Google Data Breach Puts Billions of Users At Risk

Crypto users find themselves at risk following a report about a record data breach carried out against Apple, Facebook, and Google. This data breach puts users’ information in the hands of hackers who could use it to exploit users. The breach, which exposed more than 16 billion login credentials, has raised serious concerns about the security of online accounts, especially within the cryptocurrency sector.

Tech Giants Hit By Massive Data Breach

A massive data leak has affected some of the biggest online service providers, including Apple, Facebook, Google, and others. The researchers discovered 30 exposed datasets, including billions of login credentials, including passwords. The databases totalled over 16 billion exposed credentials with sizes between tens of millions of databases and those exceeding 3.5 billion records. This is believed to be the greatest hack of its kind.

The majority of these datasets have never been published and only one (consisting of 184 million records) was previously known of.

The violation encompasses sensitive data containing passwords, tokens, cookies and metadata. In such a case, the information that is revealed is deemed to be extremely harmful since it can be used by hackers. These records provide the back door to potentially an infinite number of online services, including social media or government systems, and thus are lucrative targets to hackers. Cybernews researchers emphasised that the exposed data could lead to “mass exploitation” because it provides cybercriminals with “fresh, weaponizable intelligence at scale.”

Users are urged to update their passwords and enable multi-factor authentication (2FA) to add an extra layer of security. Security experts recommend avoiding storing recovery phrases in digital environments that are not secure. With the information in the hands of malicious actors, it’s crucial to take preventive measures to reduce the risk of exploitation.

Rising Data Breach and Hacks

The breach has not only threatened crypto users, but also it implemented wider risks to the technology sector. The exposed data contains usernames and passwords of various services, GitHub, Telegram, and many others, which means that the variety of users is potentially affected. In the meantime, besides the data breach leak of Apple, Facebook, and Google, the crypto sphere is experiencing other risks outlined by the occurrence of cyberattacks recently. An example of such an attack was on the Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex hacked in a loss of more than $81 million.

Since the hackers might have used the leaked information to conduct phishing campaigns as well as hijack accounts, all users must remain alert. Users are advised to change their passwords and stay alert.