Cyber security alert as expert warns millions of Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts have been hacked
The hacker was giving away data to people who were nice to him on online forums
HUNDREDS of millions of hacked usernames and passwords for email accounts and other websites are being exchanged in Russia’s criminal; underworld, a security expert told Reuters.
The discovery of 272.3 million stolen accounts affected Mail.ru, Russia’s most popular mail service, as well as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft users.
Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security, uncovered the data breach.
Hold Security researchers spotted a young Russian hacker bragging in an online forum that he had collected stolen credentials totalling 57 million Mail.ru accounts.
It also included tens of millions of credentials for Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo, plus hundreds of accounts belonging to Chinese and German email providers.
Holden said: “This information is potent. It is floating around in the underground and this person has shown he’s willing to give the data away to people who are nice to him.