184,162,718 logins and passwords leaked from mystery database, including govt data from 29 countries

A massive data breach has exposed more than 184 million passwords linked to Apple, Google and Facebook. This includes usernames and passwords, and social media logins to bank accounts. This was revealed by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler in a new report. According to Fowler, the compromised passwords were in an unmanaged server, which was unencrypted and had no password protection.

The database is also a mystery, since it isn't known who created it and considering the range of information it contains. Besides the passwords and user names of millions of private citizens, stolen account information connected to multiple governments across the world was also a part of the trove that fell into the hands of hackers. Fowler said that the publicly accessible database contained 184,162,718 unique logins and passwords.

Government data from 29 countries leaked

The government information was found to be linked to at least 29 countries, as per an analysis of 10,000 of these stolen accounts by Fowler. There were 220 email addresses with .gov domains, tied to the US, UK, Australia, Canada, China, India, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

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Data breach hunter Fowler told WIRED that this is "the weirdest ones" he has ever found. "As far as the risk factor here, this is way bigger than most of the stuff I find, because this is direct access into individual accounts," the expert said.

"This is a cybercriminal's dream working list."

Data worth 47 gigabytes stolen

He revealed that the stolen data was worth 47 gigabytes and contained sensitive information from Instagram, Microsoft, Netflix, PayPal, Roblox, and Discord. He recommends that everyone on these platforms change their passwords immediately, and activate Two-Factor Authentication. They should also monitor their accounts for suspicious activity.

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Fowler thinks that the data was stolen directly from users using infostealer malware, a type of "malicious software designed specifically to harvest sensitive information from an infected system." The malware can access data from web browsers, and steal autofill information and cookies, besides that of emails and messaging app data.

The unprotected database was being managed by World Host Group, a web hosting and domain name provider founded in 2019. Fowler contacted the company, after which it removed the database from public access. However, it didn't share the name of the file’s owner.

Meanwhile, Seb de Lemos, CEO of World Host Group, told WIRED, "It appears a fraudulent user signed up and uploaded illegal content to their server."