Your Email account may be in danger as security experts had confirmed that credential (user names and passwords) of millions of email account are being traded in Russia's criminal underworld.
It is confirmed by them that out of 272.3 million stolen account details include majority of users of Mail.ru (popular mail service of Russia) and smaller fractions of Google (24 millions), Yahoo (40 millions) and Microsoft email users (33 millions), said Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security.
It is confirmed by them that out of 272.3 million stolen account details include majority of users of Mail.ru (popular mail service of Russia) and smaller fractions of Google (24 millions), Yahoo (40 millions) and Microsoft email users (33 millions), said Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security.
This security breach came in notice after Hold Security researchers found a young Russian hacker bragging in an online forum that he had collected and was ready to give away a far larger number of stolen credentials that ended up totalling 1.17 billion records.
After eliminating duplicates, Holden said, 57 million Mail.ru accounts and around tens of millions of three big email providers accounts- Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo, plus hundreds of thousands of accounts at German and Chinese email are in danger .
"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, the former chief security officer at U.S. brokerage R.W. Baird. "These credentials can be abused multiple times," he said.
Hackers know users cling to favourite passwords, resisting admonitions to change credentials regularly and make them more complex. It's why attackers reuse old passwords found on one account to try to break into other accounts of the same user.
After being informed of the potential breach of email credentials, Mail.ru said in a statement "We are now checking, whether any combinations of usernames/passwords match users' e-mails and are still active."
A Microsoft spokesman said stolen 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."
Yahoo and Google did not respond about this data breach.
After eliminating duplicates, Holden said, 57 million Mail.ru accounts and around tens of millions of three big email providers accounts- Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo, plus hundreds of thousands of accounts at German and Chinese email are in danger .
"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, the former chief security officer at U.S. brokerage R.W. Baird. "These credentials can be abused multiple times," he said.
Hackers know users cling to favourite passwords, resisting admonitions to change credentials regularly and make them more complex. It's why attackers reuse old passwords found on one account to try to break into other accounts of the same user.
After being informed of the potential breach of email credentials, Mail.ru said in a statement "We are now checking, whether any combinations of usernames/passwords match users' e-mails and are still active."
A Microsoft spokesman said stolen 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."
Yahoo and Google did not respond about this data breach.