Russian hackers steal 1.2bn internet passwords

Russian hackers have stolen 1.2 billion user names and passwords in a series of internet heists affecting 420,000 websites, according to a report.

The theft was described in a New York Times story based on the findings of Hold Security, a Milwaukee firm that has a history of uncovering online security breaches.

The identities of the websites that were broken into were not identified by the newspaper, which cited non-disclosure agreements that required Hold Security to keep some information confidential.

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The reported break-ins are the latest incidents to raise doubts about the security measures that both big and small companies use to protect people’s information online.

Security experts believe hackers will continue breaking into computer networks unless companies become more vigilant.

“Companies that rely on usernames and passwords have to develop a sense of urgency about changing this,” Avivah Litan, a security analyst at the research firm Gartner told the New York Times.

Retailer Target is still struggling to win back its shoppers’ trust after hackers believed to be attacking from Eastern Europe stole 40 million credit card numbers and 70 million addresses, phone numbers and other personal information last winter.

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Alex Holden, the founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security, told the New York Times that most of the sites hit by the Russian hackers are still vulnerable to further break-ins.

Besides stealing 1.2 billion online passwords, the hackers also have amassed 500 million email addresses that could help them engineer other crimes, according to Hold Security.

So, far little of the information stolen in the wave of attacks appears to have been sold to other online crooks.

Instead, the information is being used to send marketing pitches, schemes and other junk messages on social networks on Twitter, the newspaper said.

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The breadth of these break-ins should serve as a chilling reminder of the problems that have been going undetected on the internet for years, said John Prisco, chief executive of another security firm, Triumfant.

“This issue reminds me of an iceberg, where 90 per cent of it is actually underwater,” he said.

“That’s what is going on here... So many cyber breaches today are not actually reported, often times because companies are losing information and they are not even aware of it.”

Air strikes and artillery fire between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops in the eastern city of Donetsk have brought the violence closer than ever to the city centre as Kiev’s forces move in on the rebel stronghold.

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With Ukrainian troops encircling Donetsk, western leaders accused Russia of building up forces along the border in what some fear may preface an intervention. Yesterday, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said he believed that the “the threat of a direct intervention (by Russia) is definitely greater than it was a few days ago, or two weeks ago”.