Russian Hackers Reportedly Steal 1.2 Billion Internet Passwords
Hackers are always looking for ways to do the unthinkable, which will grant them a potential payday if they could ever sell-off their trophies of data they collect from attacking large servers belonging to massive companies around the world. Information these days is ever-so vulnerable in the scope of companies constantly beefing up their security efforts to reduce the risks for having customer information stolen by pesky hackers.
In some unfortunate events recently, a group of Russian hackers have reportedly stolen 1.2 billion Internet passwords and over 500 million email addresses. First discovered by Hold Security, a firm based in Milwaukee, the records stolen contain confidential material taken from 420,000 websites. Of those websites, many of them include sites belonging to well-known and large companies, basically, several household names that many of use instantly recognize or utilize their services. Hold Security, in citing nondisclosure agreements and a reluctance to revealing the names of companies who's websites were attacked, has not revealed the victims in this massive hacking incident.
What appears to have been the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials, has created a massive hysteria. Not knowing what companies or websites succumbed to this attack is only adding to the panic of computer users around the world.
To put things into perspective, 1.2 billion user names and passwords is a lot. That is over 3-times as many people that live in the United States alone. The earths popular is only just over 7 billion, which accounts for children who do not have Internet access or accounts residing on the world wide web.
In this recent colossal attack, Russian hackers didn't just target companies based in the U.S.; they placed their heavy artillery on a global scale pegging the readout to reach Fortune 500 companies, small mom and pop shops, and worldwide ventures in every corner of the earth. Things don't get much crazier than this.
If there is one thing to take away from this mania-inducing event, is that we should take time out right now and change our passwords for any and every account we utilize over the Internet. Not only that, but identity theft services are now welcoming many with open arms as security experts suspect some of the data collected in this Russian hacker attack could make it to the market where it could be used against account holders. Remember the time when Target stores was the brunt of a hacker attack in Eastern Europe accounting for about 40 million credit card numbers and 70 million addresses, phone numbers and other information stolen. Yeah, that is like slap on the wrist compared to the colossal hammer to the temple that the Russian hacking incident is.
The call for improved identity protection and security barriers put in place is almost a looming effort by companies all over the world, large and small. It is a teeter totter game that companies play where every positive step the take to fortify their data, hackers nit-pick at the infrastructure with clever know-how to defeat those obstacles put in place. For the end-users it means suffering, and all we can do is change our passwords and hope that we are not the next victimized individual that a hacker decides to access our online accounts or personal information to ultimately make of life a living hell.