A massive leak of login information involving 16 billion accounts has been revealed, including from Apple and Facebook, according to reports.

## The largest scale in history

On the 19th, the research team of the cybersecurity company Cybernews announced the largest-ever leak of 16 billion login credentials. This massive data breach is believed to be caused by information-stealing malware and includes personal authentication information from various online services.

The research team has been continuously conducting web monitoring since the beginning of this year and has discovered 30 large-scale datasets. Each dataset contains records ranging from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion, totaling 16 billion records. The largest dataset, related to Portuguese-speaking users, contains 3.5 billion records, while the smallest has at least 16 million pieces of information.

The leaked information includes login details for major online services such as Apple, Facebook, Google, GitHub, and Telegram. The data structure consists of a combination of URLs, login information, and passwords, which is a typical format collected by information-stealing malware. According to the research team, new large-scale datasets are appearing every few weeks.

Experts warn that this leak is “not just a leakage, but a blueprint for large-scale abuse.” Cybercriminals are likely to use these credentials to carry out account takeovers, identity theft, and targeted phishing attacks. This poses a serious threat, especially to users who do not implement multi-factor authentication and proper password management.

Users must prioritize basic cybersecurity measures such as regularly changing strong passwords and conducting malware scans for information theft.