Scary: Ring Of Criminals Have Access To More Than A Billion Internet Passwords

A ring of Russian criminals has acquired

1.2 billion username and password

combinations, as well as more than 500

million email addresses, the New

York Times reports, amassing the

largest known collection of stolen

Internet credentials.

Cybersecurity firm Hold Security

discovered that the group gathered

confidential material from 420,000

websites, including household names

and small Internet sites,

the Times reports. The crime ring, based

in a small city in south central Russia,

hacked websites inside Russia as well

as major Fortune 500 companies

abroad.

"[The] hackers did not just target U.S.

companies, they targeted any website

they could get, ranging from Fortune

500 companies to very small websites,"

Alex Holden, the chief information

security officer of Hold Security told

the Times. "And most of these sites are

still vulnerable."

The criminals have been using the stolen

information to send spam on social

networks like Twitter, collecting fees for

their work. However, it has yet to sell

many of the records on the potentially

lucrative black market.

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN