"Mother of all Breaches:" Massive data leak includes 12 TB of hacked info across billions of accounts

One of the largest data dumps of breached accounts was recently discovered. 

Named the "Mother of all Breaches (MOAB for short)" by Cybernews, who first reported on the dump, the data set includes over 12 terabytes (TB) of information across over 26 billion user accounts from thousands of sources. 

The dump includes info from breached accounts involved in past leaks as well as new hacks. Essentially, this dump is a compilation of multiple attacks in the past along with new breaches. Per Cybernews, the data leak includes sensitive personal information in addition to account logins and passwords.

The data comes from thousands of websites and companies, including government groups from the United States, Germany, Brazil, and others. 

The biggest target in the dump is Tencent. Data from 1.5 billion Tencent accounts appeared in the leak. Other data came from accounts at Weibo (504 million), MySpace (360 million), Twitter (281 million), Wattpad (271 million), NetEase (261 million), and more.

Readers can check if their accounts have been compromised by using free tools like haveibeenpwned.com. It's likely most readers will have at least one account that has appeared in a data breach and should take measures to secure that account.

Good cybersecurity practices include using different passwords for each account created, using multiple unique email addresses to create accounts, and routinely changing the passwords of your accounts. It is also generally advisable to use a secured password manager (like KeePass) that can generate randomized and lengthy passwords. Readers should also use two-factor authentication when possible and consider a hardware security key like the Yubico YubiKey 5C (available at Amazon).