A Russian crime ring has hacked 1.2 billion usernames and passwords belonging to more than 500 million email addresses, according to a recent article from the New York Times.
Hold Security, a firm specializing in breach discovery, claimed that the stolen information came from more than 420,000 websites including from "many leaders in virtually all industries across the world."
The Milwaukee-based firm declined to name the victims, citing nondisclosure agreements. "They didn't just target large companies; instead, they targeted every site that their victims visited," Hold Security said in its report.
At the request of the New York Times, a security expert analyzed the database of stolen information and confirmed it was authentic.
So far, the criminals have not sold many of the records online, the New York Times reports. Instead, the stolen information has been used to send spam and install malicious redirections.
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