16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked Cryptocurrency holders face serious security risks

On June 19, according to reports, over 16 billion login credentials from mainstream online service providers such as Apple, Google, and Facebook were leaked. This massive data breach could have serious consequences for crypto assets holders. Login credentials refer to usernames and passwords (or other verification information).

According to a report released Friday, the Cybernews research team reviewed “30 exfiltrated datasets, each containing tens of millions to more than 3.5 billion records.” This data adds up to a “staggering 16 billion compromised login credentials.”

According to the report, “with the exception of a ‘mysterious database’ containing 184 million records, which has been reported, the rest of the datasets have not been made public before.” Most databases contain an average of about 550 million records, and the smallest datasets have more than 16 million records.

Cybernews warns that the data could be the “basis for a large-scale attack”, providing attackers with “a wealth of intelligence that is fresh and weaponizable”. Most data breaches are said to originate from unprotected Elasticsearch instances or object storage services.