Yes, 16 billion passwords were leaked. No, that’s not what you think.

information Spread earlier on Friday A record-breaking data breach spreads 16 billion passwords worldwide, including user credentials for Facebook, Google, Apple and many other places. Some commentators quickly called it the largest password leak in history, which is technically mostly correct in terms of the original record. However, these records do no From a violation, or even a new violation. Instead, they come from many smaller ones.

Data breaches are unfortunate reality in the digital age, and some of them can be huge. However, not all releases of stolen data are the direct result of recent cybersecurity vulnerabilities. As Mashable recently reported in our countdown on the highest cybersecurity vulnerabilities of 2025, hackers often collect information from multiple previous hackers and combine them into a large number of files. This has become a trend in the darkest corner of the Internet. The end result is more like “the biggest hit” than a new, noteworthy hack.

This is the case here. Every Angry computermost likely compiled from a single set of data, and then published information contained in 16 billion records. It may loop for a while before it is compiled and it may come from a violation, a hacker, Phishing scamand malware.

This is backed up By a tweet From VX-Underground, an educational website specializing in malware and cybersecurity. “Someone grabbed a bunch of existing leaks, threw them all together, and patted a new stick. [sic] On top. ”

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However, since cybercriminals can now access all this data in a single location, the existence of all this data is still quite harmful. Identity theft.

The largest single-point data breach in history is still Yahoo’s 2016 violationWhen a hacker steals all three billion data about the website’s users.

Protect yourself from password leakage

With so many records in one place (even if some of them are old data that are no longer relevant), it is still a good idea to audit your online service to make sure you are protected. A good place is I’ve hada website dedicated to displaying data breaches. Simply go there, enter your email address and the website will show you which credentials have reached the public.

We recommend that if not already, change these credentials immediately and use strong passwords when operating this as they are harder to crack. After that, you need Enable multi-factor authentication On every account you may be able to use, additional layers help prevent criminals from getting your passwords so they can’t steal your life. That should be the minimum, but There are many other steps you can take To ensure you are safe online.

Is there a story about a scam or security breach that affects you? Tell us. e-mail [email protected] The subject line “Safety Net” or use this form. People from Mashable will get in touch.