On the black Russian Internet market trading data base consisting of hundreds of millions of compromised accounts of the largest e-mail services such as Mail.ru Gmail and Yahoo Mail. According to the founder and director of Hold Security Information Security Alex Holden the database included 272.3 million of the stolen logins and passwords.
According to Reuters news agency expert from 1.17 billion database records handed him a Russian teenager who boasted of their possession of one of the online forums. Initially the young man asked for a large amount of data only 50 rubles but after contacting Holden gave him a base in exchange for praise on hacker forums.
After removing duplicates Holden found in the base of 57 million usernames and passwords from Mail.ru accounts (at the end of last year the postal service is best to use 64 million people) 40 million accounts Yahoo Mail (15% of the total) 33 million Microsoft Hotmail and 24 million Gmail. Thousands of usernames and passwords stolen combinations belonged to employees in the largest US banks retail and manufacturing companies he said.
Mail.Ru The press service of the request Reuters said that the company checks the relevance of the data contained in the database. "As soon as we have enough information we will warn users who might be affected" - said the representative of the corporation. This preliminary check Mail.Ru showed that "leaked" logins and passwords are not suitable for active accounts.
In Microsoft called the compromised accounts "an unfortunate reality." In case of theft account the company 'request for additional information to identify the owner and help him regain access. "