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Researchers Discover Massive Data Leak Exposing 16 Billion Login Credentials
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered one of the largest breaches in history, involving several collections that expose over 16 billion login credentials from multiple online platforms, including Facebook, Apple, GitHub, and Google.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Cybersecurity researchers discovered an enormous breach exposing over 16 billion login credentials.
- It’s considered one of the largest data breaches in history.
- Data includes credentials from Apple, Google, GitHub, and Facebook.
According to a report by Cybernews , its team of experts suspects that some of these collections—which include over 30 datasets with an average of 550 million records—belong to cybercriminals. The datasets vary significantly in size and language, with some in Portuguese and Russian. Researchers determined that most of the data originates from various infostealers—malicious software used to harvest sensitive information.
Cybernews’ research team explained that none of the discovered collections had been previously disclosed, except for one: the massive unsecured database that leaked 184 million login credentials reported a few days ago. However, the newly discovered collection includes an even larger dataset, such as one with more than 3.5 billion records.
The cybersecurity experts shared their thoughts and concerns about this colossal discovery and its implications.
This is not just a leak – it’s a blueprint for mass exploitation. With over 16 billion login records exposed, cybercriminals now have unprecedented access to personal credentials that can be used for account takeover, identity theft, and highly targeted phishing.
The experts also explained that massive datasets continue to emerge every week, highlighting just how powerful modern infostealers have become. Fortunately, many of the exposed credentials appear to have been only temporarily accessible.
Although it’s impossible to determine exactly how many people were affected—as the different datasets could not be compared—most of them had a similar structure: URL, login information, and password. That order suggests that actors gathering the collections used modern infostealers.
Researchers warned that this large collection of login credentials could be used for multiple attacks, including phishing campaigns, ransomware intrusions, account takeovers, and business email compromise.
“The inclusion of both old and recent infostealer logs – often with tokens, cookies, and metadata – makes this data particularly dangerous for organizations lacking multi-factor authentication or credential hygiene practices,” added the team.
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Sam Altman Says Meta Offered $100M To Recruit OpenAI Talent
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that Meta has offered his employees up to $100 million in an effort to recruit them, during a podcast released on Tuesday. He shared these details in a conversation with his brother on the show Uncapped with Jack Altman.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Sam Altman revealed that Meta has offered OpenAI employees up to $100 million in attempts to recruit them.
- Meta sees OpenAI as one of its main competitors.
- None of OpenAI’s top talent has accepted the offers so far.
According to OpenAI’s CEO, Meta has been unsuccessfully trying to seduce their talent with generous offers and benefits.
“I’ve heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor,” said Altman. “They started making these giant offers to a lot of people in our team—like $100 million signing bonuses.”
New episode of Uncapped with @sama . Enjoy 🤗 pic.twitter.com/2IxYt3B4Gm — Jack Altman (@jaltma) June 17, 2025
Altman said he understands Meta’s aggressive approach, as the company is trying to stay ahead in the AI race. However, he suggested their efforts haven’t been as successful as anticipated.
“I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that,” added Altman. “I think that people sort of looked at the two paths and said, ‘Alright, OpenAI’s got a much better shot at actually delivering on superintelligence, and may also eventually be the more valuable company.’”
Altman also criticized Meta’s company culture, saying it focuses too much on competitors rather than on research and mission. Later in the show, he added that while he admires Meta in many ways, they are “not great at innovation.” He emphasized that OpenAI aims to be the best place in the world to develop advanced AI technologies.
Meta has been trying to get the most talented AI experts for its new Superintelligence Lab , for which they have already acquired Scale AI and its CEO Alexandr Wang.
Later in the podcast, Altman also expressed curiosity about the development of AI-powered social media.
