Data Spill of the Year? 16 Billion Logins Go Public

Welcome to a new week of insights and innovation.

In this edition, we examine the quiet cracks and bold shifts reshaping our digital systems, executive strategies, and global infrastructure. From the exposure of billions of passwords to the growing demand for AI fluency in leadership, these stories reflect how trust, adaptability, and execution are becoming non-negotiable.

This week’s highlights include:

• Cyber Hygiene Warning: 16 Billion Logins Briefly Exposed.

• Generative AI: $202B in Global Investment by 2028.

• Geopolitics and Global Business: A New Corporate Operating Manual.

• Fintech Expansion: PalmPay Eyes $100M Raise After Surpassing Profitability

• Executive Wake-Up Call: Why Leaders Need to Learn AI, Now

CYBER HYGIENCE WARNING:
16 Billion Logins Briefly Exposed

A recent investigation by cybersecurity specialist Bob Diachenko and Cybernews revealed the brief exposure of 16 billion login credentials, compiled from malware tools known as infostealers and various older breaches. While many of these credentials were likely already circulating underground, the volume underscores how fragile digital security has become.

These datasets, found stored insecurely on remote servers, included access points to platforms like Facebook, Google, and Apple. No major company breach occurred, but the way the data was aggregated and left exposed creates clear risk. Diachenko’s findings suggest that the majority of the data—around 85%—originated from infostealers, malware designed to silently extract credentials from browsers. The remaining portion came from historical leaks, such as those tied to LinkedIn.

Cybernews described the data structure as methodical: login URLs followed by usernames and passwords. The files were removed quickly after discovery, and researchers are now working to notify affected individuals and organizations.

Why This Matters

Although there’s no “new” attack vector here, the incident reinforces a known vulnerability: over-reliance on passwords without layered security. Experts warn that access to such data supports account takeover attempts, targeted phishing, and identity theft. Security analysts at Sophos and Darktrace emphasized that while the threat isn’t new, the sheer scale shows how much data is accessible to criminal networks, often collected silently, long before it's discovered.

What To Do

• Change passwords, especially on key services or reused credentials

• Enable multifactor authentication to reduce risk of unauthorized access

• Use password managers to generate and store strong, unique credentials

• Monitor exposure using services like haveibeenpwned.com

• Consider transitioning to passkeys as supported by major platforms like Google and Meta

Cyber resilience starts with prevention. Passwords may feel outdated in a world of biometrics and encryption, but they remain a first line of defense. This leak is a call to reassess and resecure the foundations of digital identity.

GENERATIVE AI:
$202B in Global Investment by 2028

The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) has published a new report titled Generative Artificial Intelligence: Promising Prospects for a Better Future. The document outlines how emerging generative systems are reshaping workflows, budgets, and strategy across the Gulf region and beyond.

Unlike earlier automation tools, generative systems are designed to create content such as text, images, software code, and simulations. According to SDAIA, this capability is already prompting large-scale shifts in how institutions operate and prioritize digital investment.

Drawing on research from Deloitte, the report estimates that these tools can reduce operational costs by 30 percent or more. McKinsey's survey of over 1,300 companies shows that human resources departments have already seen cost reductions between 10 and 37 percent. Supply chain operations in several cases have recorded profit improvements above 6 percent.

Forecasts from IDC indicate that global spending on generative systems is projected to reach $202 billion by 2028, accounting for 32 percent of all AI-related investment. The overall AI market is expected to grow to $632 billion by that time.

Regionally, adoption is accelerating. A 2024 McKinsey study cited in the report found that 75 percent of public and private sector organizations in the Gulf are already using generative tools in at least one business area. Sales, marketing, and engineering are among the leading focus areas. Additionally, 57 percent of those surveyed are committing at least 5 percent of their digital budgets to development in this space. Half of the organizations reported having defined roadmaps in place.

Looking ahead, SDAIA anticipates that by 2026, four out of five organizations globally will be applying generative systems in their operations. By 2027, specialized models are expected to gain traction, and over 100 million individuals are projected to rely on digital assistants in both workplace and personal contexts.

GEOPOLITICS & GLOBAL BUSINESS:
A New Corporate Operating Manual

Why today's multinationals need to reorganize for resilience and regional complexity

The rules that once governed global trade no longer hold the same weight. Fragmentation is reshaping the way multinationals operate, and McKinsey’s latest report outlines how companies must evolve to meet this moment.

Multinational corporations are under increasing pressure to revisit long-held assumptions about growth, scale, and efficiency. In today’s climate, leaders must factor in risk, jurisdictional constraints, and real-time geopolitical shifts.

What’s Changing?

Geopolitical influence now touches every part of business: tariffs, capital controls, supply chain fragility, regulatory divergence, and even workforce mobility. These aren’t abstract risks. They are operational realities that determine where companies can build, trade, and invest.

McKinsey highlights ten forces shaping the future of global business—from export bans and sanctions to domestic labor and environmental policy. These factors do not affect all businesses equally. They depend on a company’s footprint, sector, and region. But the takeaway is clear: old frameworks designed for a borderless economy are no longer sufficient.

A Strategy Built for Tension

Rather than defaulting to centralization or decentralization, companies are now recalibrating in three key areas:

• Value at Stake: Companies must map where their exposure lies, whether in revenue, talent, operations, or data, and consider where realignment is necessary to protect future growth.

• Governance Structure: Some businesses are creating localized legal entities to reduce risk and improve responsiveness. This structure gives room to pivot quickly in high-volatility regions without compromising the core enterprise.

• Organizational Design: Strategy teams are rethinking decision-making flows, shifting from global command centers to more distributed models where leadership is empowered regionally. At the same time, risk teams are moving closer to frontline operations.

A Clearer Lens on Risk

McKinsey introduces the idea of “geopolitical distance”, a measure of policy divergence between countries, to help companies assess vulnerability. The higher the distance between two nations, the more likely tensions will disrupt business. Leaders who use this lens can identify where to consolidate, where to build redundancy, and where new markets may offer long-term advantage.

What This Signals

The report does more than outline a risk map. It reflects an inflection point in how multinationals define value. Success now depends on how well a company can adapt its systems to regional complexity, legal nuance, and political volatility. The companies that thrive will be those who proactively reshape their structure,not in response to crisis, but in anticipation of it.

FINCTECH EXPANSION:
PalmPay Eyes $100M Raise After Surpassing Profitability

PalmPay, the Nigerian fintech platform, is in discussions to raise between $50 million and $100 million in a fresh Series B round. The company has not disclosed a target valuation, but insiders confirm it has now reached profitability and is pursuing expansion with a clear financial mandate.

Founded in 2019, PalmPay set out to serve a segment overlooked by traditional banks: the informal economy. It offers instant onboarding, zero-fee transfers, and a suite of tools, savings, insurance, bill pay, and credit, built around everyday users and small businesses. Today, 25% of users say it was their first financial account. For borrowers, that figure rises to 60%.

The platform processes over 15 million daily transactions, supported by 35 million registered users and a physical network of more than 1 million agents and merchants. These partnerships serve 10 million customers monthly through PalmPay’s business app and payment devices.

Backed by Transsion, the Chinese phone maker with dominant market share in Africa, PalmPay’s app is pre-installed on select smartphones. This has become a reliable acquisition channel in a mobile-first market. Additional investors include GIC and MediaTek.

PalmPay’s revenue hit $64 million in 2023 and has since more than doubled. The new capital will help fund its expansion in Nigeria and support new markets, including Tanzania and Bangladesh, where it has already launched consumer credit and device financing.

The company has also introduced a cross-border payments solution for African businesses. Currently active in Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania, the service simplifies payments across the continent through a single API. PalmPay says it now processes hundreds of millions of dollars in merchant volume monthly and plans to extend the product to South Africa.

As it scales, PalmPay is prioritizing both consumer and enterprise solutions, developing local infrastructure that supports financial inclusion and operational resilience. With profitability in hand and new regions in focus, it is moving from high-growth to long-term platform play.

EXECUTIVE WAKE-UP CALL:
Why Leaders Need to Learn AI. Now.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently issued a sharp reminder to his executive team: if you're leading people who understand AI better than you do, you're already behind. This isn’t a call for engineers to become CEOs. It’s a shift in expectation—leaders need to understand what these tools can do, where they fit, and how they are changing decision-making.

Inside Amazon and across the tech world, companies are integrating generative tools into planning, logistics, operations, and customer service. But many senior leaders are not moving with the same speed. The concern is simple: those who don’t take the time to understand AI will struggle to manage teams, make product decisions, or lead responsibly in this next phase of transformation.

The technology itself is evolving quickly, but what’s even more urgent is the widening gap between those who are learning and those who are delaying. Across several companies, workers have reported vague strategies, unclear expectations, and inconsistent communication about how new tools will affect their jobs. That disconnect is creating friction.

Leadership today requires more than adopting tools. It demands clarity. It demands that executives can speak confidently to the direction of change, build trust within their teams, and guide implementation with a clear understanding of business context.

Jassy’s warning is not about hype. It is about readiness. This moment is forcing a recalibration across every industry, and leaders who lean into that reality will be the ones who shape it.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
We value your feedback!

Your thoughts and opinions help us improve our newsletter. Please take a moment to let us know what you think.