<\/p>\n
New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) Login credentials, including usernames, passwords, of over 149 million accounts of internet firms, including Gmail, Instagram, Facebook, and Netflix, have allegedly been leaked, a report published by ExpressVPN said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The report published by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler claims that the publicly exposed data includes 48 million accounts on Gmail, 4 million on Yahoo, 17 million on Facebook, 6.5 million on Instagram, 3.4 million on Netflix, 1.5 million on Outlook, etc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“The publicly exposed database was not password-protected or encrypted. It contained 149,404,754 unique logins and passwords, totaling a massive 96 GB of raw credential data. In a limited sampling of the exposed documents, I saw thousands of files that included emails, usernames, passwords, and the URL links to the login or authorization for the accounts,” Fowler said in the report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Email queries to major firms named in the report did not elicit any immediate reply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Fowler said the database was publicly accessible, allowing anyone who discovered it to potentially access the credentials of millions of individuals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“The exposed records included usernames and passwords collected from victims around the world, spanning a wide range of commonly used online services and about any type of account imaginable,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Financial services accounts, crypto wallets or trading accounts, banking and credit card logins also appeared in the limited sample of records that the cybersecurity researcher claims to have reviewed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He said a serious concern was the presence of credentials associated with ‘.gov’ domains from numerous countries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“While not every government-linked account grants access to sensitive systems, even limited access could have serious implications depending on the role and permissions of the compromised user.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“Exposed government credentials could be potentially used for targeted spear-phishing, impersonation, or as an entry point into government networks. This increases the potential of .gov credentials posing national security and public safety risks,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Fowler said that the exposure of such a large number of unique logins and passwords presents a potentially serious security risk to a large number of individuals who may not know their information was stolen or exposed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“Because the data includes emails, usernames, passwords, and the exact login URLs, criminals could potentially automate credential-stuffing attacks against exposed accounts including email, financial services, social networks, enterprise systems, and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“This dramatically increases the likelihood of fraud, potential identity theft, financial crimes, and phishing campaigns that could appear legitimate because they reference real accounts and services,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) Login credentials, including usernames, passwords, of over 149 million accounts of internet firms, including Gmail, Instagram, Facebook, and Netflix, have allegedly been leaked, a report published by ExpressVPN said. The report published by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler claims that the publicly exposed data includes 48 million accounts on Gmail, 4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[188,183,185,186,1044,259,1067,85,187,113,184,189,150,182,190],"class_list":["post-418013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-blockchain-tech","tag-blockchain-technology","tag-crypto-technology","tag-cryptocurrency-technology","tag-cybersecurity","tag-facebook","tag-gmail","tag-instagram","tag-metaverse-technology","tag-netflix","tag-nft-technology","tag-soul-bound-token","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-token-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418018,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418013\/revisions\/418018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}