About the leaks
Two significant data leaks connected to two AI-related apps have been discovered by cybersecurity researchers, exposing the private information and media files of millions of users worldwide.
The security researchers cautioned that more than a billion records might be exposed in two different studies published by Cybernews, which were initially reported by Forbes. An AI-powered Know Your Customer (KYC) technology utilized by digital identity verification company IDMerit has been blamed for the initial leak. The business offers real-time verification tools to the fintech and financial services industries as part of its AI-powered digital identity verification solutions.
Attack tactic
When the researchers discovered the unprotected instance on November 11, 2025, they informed the company right away, and they quickly secured the database. The cybersecurity researchers said, “Automated crawlers set up by threat actors constantly prowl the web for exposed instances, downloading them almost instantly once they appear, even though there is currently no evidence of malicious misuse.”
Leaked records
One billion private documents belonging to people in 26 different nations were compromised. With almost 203 million exposed data, the United States was the most impacted, followed by Mexico (124 million) and the Philippines (72 million). Full names, residences, postcodes, dates of birth, national IDs, phone numbers, genders, email addresses, and telecom information were among the “core personal identifiers used for your financial and digital life” that were made public.
According to researchers, account takeovers, targeted phishing, credit fraud, SIM swaps, and long-term privacy losses are some of the downstream hazards associated with this data leak. The Android software “Video AI Art Generator & Maker,” which has received over 500,000 downloads on Google Play and has received over 11,000 reviews with a rating of 4.3 stars, is connected to the second leak. Due to a Google Cloud Storage bucket that was improperly configured, allowing anyone to access stored files without authentication, the app was discovered to be leaking user data. According to researchers, the app exposed millions of media assets created by users utilizing AI, as well as more than 1.5 million user photos and 385,000 videos.
The app was created by Codeway Dijital Hizmetler Anonim Sirketi, a company registered in Turkey. Previously, the company’s Chat & Ask AI app leaked around 300 million messages associated with over 25 million users.
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