A cybersecurity researcher has discovered a huge database containing 184 million usernames and passwords. A large number of online services are affected.
Personal data thefts are unfortunately becoming more and more frequent. We remember the end of 2024 with the massive data leaks concerning Free subscribers. Each time, millions of people have to be extra careful now that their email address or even their phone number are available to malicious people. And it's clearly not going to stop anytime soon.
Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler has made a rather worrying discovery: a nearly 48 GB file containing more than 184 million private pieces of information. The man didn't download it in its entirety, but took a sample of 10,000 entries to see what was going on. The result is chilling. Emails, logins, passwords… All concerning dozens of widely used online services.
A database containing 184 million logins and passwords was discovered
In his sample alone, Fowler found private data from Facebook, Google, Amazon, Instagram, Discord, Netflix, PayPal, Apple, Spotify, and Microsoft accounts. And the list is not exhaustive. Banks are also present, as well as government and health-related sites. No hard feelings: the information concerns “the whole world”. Of course, France is not explicitly named, but it's better to be careful.
In the best-case scenario, we can therefore expect the launch of targeted phishing campaigns using the collected data in the coming weeks. In the worst case, bank fraud and identity theft. We advise you to change your most important passwords, if possible using a password manager.
The strangest thing about all this is that Jeremiah Fowler was unable to identify where the database came from. His IP address is linked to two domain names. The first is parked (not in use), but unavailable for purchase; the second is unregistered and for sale. The expert was, however, able to send an alert to the file's host, who quickly took it offline.
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