149 million passwords for Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and other popular services exposed online

(Image credit: Shutterstock) No, this wasn’t a data breach and hackers weren’t involved, at least not in the way that you might think. They didn’t break into Google or Meta’s systems or steal your data from the inside. Instead, this new data leak involved a massive collection of stolen passwords accumulated by info-stealing malware. According to a new report from ExpressVPN, cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler recently discovered an exposed database online that contained approximately 149,404,754 unique logins and passwords across 96GB of raw data. These stolen credentials also came with links that point back to which service or platform they’re used to access. With all of this stolen data in hand, other cybercriminals could try and use it to access victims’ accounts. Worse still, if a victim reused the same password across multiple accounts, the fallout from this leak could be even worse since hackers will likely try those login details across multiple sites and services, likely through automation. Here’s everything you need to know about this major data leak including which services had the most stolen credentials along with some tips and tricks to help you stay safe in the aftermath. Exposed accounts by service From email providers to
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