Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

About Author

Amin Ayan is a crypto journalist with over four years of experience in the industry. He has contributed to leading publications such as Cryptonews, Investing.com, 99Bitcoins, and 24/7 Wall St. He has…

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Last updated: 

July 29, 2025

A new study has revealed the extent of sensitive information leaked through ransomware attacks and data breaches, including key financial documents and crypto keys.

The report, published by cybersecurity firm Lab 1, analyzed over 141 million records from 1,297 breach incidents.

Unlike most breach assessments that focus on structured data like usernames and passwords, Lab 1’s analysis targeted unstructured files, the type often overlooked but potentially more damaging.

Hidden Dangers: Financial Docs, Crypto Keys, and Emails Exposed

The breaches include financial documents, cryptographic keys, email archives, and internal business records.

According to Lab 1 CEO Robin Brattel, the goal was to expose the risks hidden in everyday files that rarely draw attention.

“We focused on the huge risks associated with unstructured files that often hold high-value information, such as cryptographic keys, customer account data, or sensitive commercial contracts,” he said.

The findings are alarming. Financial documents appeared in 93% of the breach incidents studied, accounting for 41% of all analyzed files.

Nearly half included bank statements, and over a third contained International Bank Account Numbers.

In 82% of the cases, customer or corporate personally identifiable information (PII) was exposed, much of it originating from customer service interactions.

A staggering 51% of incidents included emails containing U.S. Social Security numbers.

Perhaps most concerning was the discovery of cryptographic keys in 18% of the breaches.

These keys can be used to bypass authentication systems, giving attackers a powerful advantage in future cyber intrusions. Source code and internal scripts were also widely leaked, appearing in 17% of the analyzed data sets.

The study underscores a shift in cybercriminal tactics. Hackers are increasingly operating like data scientists, mining stolen data for high-value assets to use in fraud, identity theft, or ransomware follow-ups.

“With cybercriminals now behaving like data scientists to unearth these valuable insights to fuel cyberattacks and fraud, unstructured data cannot be ignored,” Brattel warned.

16 Billion Logins Leaked: New Mega Breach Puts Crypto Users at Risk

Last month, a massive data breach exposed more than 16 billion login credentials from platforms like Apple, Google, Facebook, Telegram, and GitHub, according to cybersecurity researchers at Cybernews.

The breach, among the largest ever recorded, is not a single leak but a combination of datasets gathered through infostealer malware, credential stuffing attacks, and undisclosed breaches tracked since early 2024. Some individual sets held as many as 3.5 billion entries.

Researchers warned the leaked credentials—many recently harvested—pose a severe threat to users, especially those in crypto, due to the inclusion of sensitive login details, cookies, and tokens.

The structure of the data suggests it was harvested by modern malware, making it far more dangerous than older, recycled leaks.

One dataset tied to Telegram included 60 million records, while another, allegedly linked to Russia, had over 455 million.

Much of the data was found in unsecured Elasticsearch databases and object storage systems, briefly exposed but long enough to be copied.

Although the exact source remains unclear, cybersecurity experts suspect criminal actors compiled the records.

With such a vast trove of credentials, attackers now have tools for phishing, ransomware, and unauthorized access to crypto wallets, especially for users lacking multi-factor authentication.

A few new code references in the ChatGPT web app and Android point to an Operator-like tool in GPT’s chain of thoughts.

As spotted by Tibor on X, the Android beta has strings like “click,” “drag,” “type,” and even “terminal feed,” which seem to suggest that ChatGPT could soon call a remote browser or sandboxed environment (Operator?).

For those unaware, OpenAI already has Operator, which uses an AI agent to navigate a remote browser session and execute tasks for you.

These references suggest that ChatGPT’s thinking model might call a browser or APIs to execute tasks. There are also references to “Checking available APIs” and “Reading API documentation.”

It’s also worth noting that the code mentions an “intake form,” so OpenAI may gate this feature behind an invite-only beta before rolling it out more widely.

Could it be ChatGPT-5 or some other model? We don’t know, and we likely won’t anytime soon as OpenAI is busy with its standoff with Meta.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans are now at risk of identity theft and fraud after a major data breach at a human resources firm.

In a new filing with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, Maryland-based Kelly Benefits says it has discovered a significant cybersecurity incident impacting 413,032 people.

The company says an internal investigation revealed that an unknown entity gained unauthorized access to its database and stole sensitive customer information, including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, tax ID numbers, medical and health insurance records and financial account datasets.

“The investigation determined Kelly Benefits’ environment was subject to unauthorized access between December 12th, 2024 and December 17th, 2024 and certain files were copied and taken.

Kelly Benefits then began a time-intensive and detailed review of all files affected by this event to determine what information was present in the impacted files and to whom it related.

Once this review was complete, Kelly Benefits reviewed its internal records to match the individual to the appropriate client or carrier. This analysis was completed on March 3rd, 2025.”

Kelly Benefits offers a wide array of HR-related services, including benefits administration, payroll solutions, retirement planning, compliance support and consulting services.

The firm says it issued letters of notice to affected individuals while offering a 12-month credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.

For now, Kelly Benefits says it “has seen no evidence of misuse of any information related to this incident.”

The firm says it has reported the data breach to federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies and will continue closely monitoring its security policies, procedures and tools.

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