Millions of Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Email Account Details Stolen in Massive Security Breach

Millions of usernames and passwords of many Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail accounts are being sold in Russia. Hackers can also use passwords for accessing other accounts of the same user.

Millions of Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Email Account Details Stolen in Massive Security Breach

Tens of million of usernames and passwords for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo email accounts have been hacked and the breached details are now sold online, according to security expert. Data from about 97 million accounts have been stolen in the massive cyber attack which is believed to affect 272.3 users globally said Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security.

It has been claimed that that this is one of the biggest data breaches in years, the information is being sold in Russia’s criminal underworld. It is believed that login credentials from about 40 million Yahoo Mail accounts, 33 million hotmail accounts and 24 million Gmail accounts have been accessed. However, majority of user credentials are available online.

This breach was discovered after researchers found a young Russian hacker boasting in an online forum that he had gathered and was ready to offer large number of stolen information.

However, hacker demanded only 50 roubles for the entire collection but gave up the dataset after Hold researchers conceded to post favorable comments about him in hacker forums, Holden said. He said his company’s policy is to refuse to pay for stolen data.

“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” said Holden.

“These credentials can be abused multiple times.”

A Microsoft spokesman said theft of online credentials was an unfortunate reality. “Microsoft has security measures in place to detect account compromise and requires additional information to verify the account owner and help them regain sole access.”

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