16 Billion Apple and Google Passwords Leaked, Largest in History

 A total of 16 billion login credentials, including passwords, have been exposed and are circulating online. An investigation conducted since the beginning of the year by a team of researchers from Cybernews and Forbes revealed that this data is not merely a rehash of old leaks, but a new collection generated by various malware infostealers that are becoming increasingly prevalent. 

According to Forbes on Friday (June 20, 2025), the leaked credentials include accounts from nearly all major online services—from Apple, Google, Facebook, Telegram, GitHub, VPNs, to government services.  

Malware Bytes reports that researchers have called this leak a "blueprint for mass exploitation" because it could be used as the basis for phishing attacks, account takeovers, identity theft, and even global financial fraud.

This isn't just a leak — it's a blueprint for mass exploitation. This isn't just old violations being recycled, they warn, it's fresh intelligence that can be weaponized on a massive scale," the researchers said, as reported by The Independent.

This leaked data was found in 30 different databases, each containing tens of millions to more than 3.5 billion credentials. Almost all of these datasets have never been reported before, except for one database containing 184 million passwords that went viral last May.  All of them are strongly suspected to originate from infostealers—malware that secretly steals login data from victims' devices and then sends it to cybercriminals.

Infostealer is a type of malware that steals credentials, crypto wallets, and other data from infected devices. 

This malware targets both Windows and Mac systems, and when executed, it collects all stored credentials on the device and saves them in a "log." Infostealer logs typically consist of an archive containing multiple text files listing credentials from browsers, files, and other applications, with the general format URL:username:password, though delimiters may vary.

Security experts recommend the following steps to protect yourself from the impact of this leak:

- Change the passwords for all important accounts, using strong and unique combinations.

- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all services that support it. - Use a password manager to store and manage passwords. 

- Monitor account activity regularly to detect suspicious activity. - Switch to passkeys immediately if available.

- Never share passwords and be wary of suspicious links.