16 billion accounts exposed: marking one of the biggest data breaches in history

Welp... one of the largest data breaches in history has just happened, with 16 billion (yes, with a 'b') accounts exposed.

Cybernews is the team responsible for IDing and cataloging a large number of major leaks in the past, assembling the datasets that make up the new 16 billion accounts leaked. Just a single dataset from the breach represents 184 million records, which was previously reported by Wired. The rest of them are all new from across the globe, including three distinct batches that had over 1 billion credentials in each of them.

The 16 billion accounts breached were uncovered by security researchers in January 2025, with the largest batch of the leaks sourced from Portuguese-speaking populations that contained 3.5 billion credentials, with other large batches named after Russian logins, Telegram logins, and a bunch of mostly generic names.

Google stepped up rather quickly, warning 2 billion of its users to change their Gmail passwords, while the FBI has warned people not to click on links they receive in SMS messages. Vilius Petkauskas at Cybernews explained at the beginning of 2025 that "30 exposed datasets containing from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records each" had been discovered.

Petkauskas confirmed that the total number of compromised accounts has reached a blistering, record 16 billion accounts. The breaches include countless login credentials with compromised passwords, and more. There are billions of login credentials from social media, VPNs, developer ports, and user accounts for all major vendors. Forbes reports that none of these datasets have been reported about in the past and that "this is all new data".

Researchers have said: "this is not just a leak -- it's a blueprint for mass exploitation. These aren't just old breaches being recycled" they warned, adding "this is fresh, weaponized intelligence at scale".