184 million passwords leaked across Facebook, Google, more: What to know about this data breach

While it's not as large in scale as the latest data breach that leaked over 16 billion passwords, another incident has exposed passwords and other sensitive information across some of the most popular services on the internet. Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler revealed his discovery of a massive online database containing more than 184 million unique account credentials, in a report published late last month. Usernames, passwords, emails, and URLs for a host of applications and websites, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, among others, were stored in a file. The database also contained credentials for bank and financial accounts, health platforms, and government portals. Also: 16 billion passwords leaked from Apple, Google, more: Here are the facts and how to protect yourself The problem? The file was unencrypted. No password protection. No security. Just a plain text file with millions of sensitive pieces of data. Based on his analysis, Fowler determined the data was captured by some kind of infostealer malware. A popular tool used by cybercriminals, an infostealer is designed to grab usernames, passwords, and other sensitive data from breached sites and servers. Once the criminals get their hands on the data, they can use it to launch their own attacks or peddle the information on the dark web. After finding the database, Fowler contacted the hosting provider, which removed it from public access. Since the provider would not disclo...