Did an Instagram data breach expose 17 million accounts worldwide? Meta says ‘accounts remain secure’<\/a><\/p>\nData found in public database<\/p>\n
According to Fowler, the data was found in a publicly accessible database that lacked even basic security safeguards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said in the report.<\/p>\n
Fowler said the database could be accessed by anyone who came across it, potentially exposing millions of users to misuse of their credentials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sensitive information leaked<\/p>\n
The dataset reportedly also contained sensitive information linked to financial services, including crypto wallets, trading platforms, banking logins and credit card accounts, based on a limited review conducted by the researcher.<\/p>\n
A particularly serious issue, Fowler noted, was the presence of credentials linked to government email addresses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile 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
\u201cExposed 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fowler warned that the scale of the exposure poses a major threat to users who may be unaware that their information has been compromised.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause 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
\u201cThis 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Login credentials linked to more than 149 million online accounts were allegedly exposed after a large database was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[145725,145724,145723,99352,111,139,69,71978,145],"class_list":["post-250666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-cybersecurity-researcher","tag-exposed-database","tag-login-credentials","tag-national-security-risks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-online-accounts","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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The data was found in a publicly accessible database that lacked even basic security safeguards. (Representative Image\/Pexel)<\/p>\n