Hide Security has recently uncovered around 360 million account passwords, emails and credentials in the past three weeks, all for major email providers. According to online security consultant Graham Cluley on BBC, the haul would be “a complete treasure trove for cybercriminals.”
The stolen account information was found as a result of an investigation by Hide Security into multiple breaches, which took place during the first half of February. The company also uncovered around `1.25 billion stolen accounts with only email addresses and no passwords, turning this into the Holy Grail of cybercrime just by sheer numbers.
These details could be used for multiple kinds of digital crime, and are not limited the account they originate from: according to Cluley, you could use an account password or email address to crack other potential accounts: using a large database of passwords such as this, cyber-criminals could figure out common passwords and try them out across numerous accounts.
This kind of crime is made even more dangerous due to the simple fact that most people use the same email address or password for multiple online accounts, meaning if somebody gets access to one of your accounts, it’s rather incredibly easy for them to get access to the rest of them.
According to Hide Security chief information security officer Alex Holden, these billions of passwords and emails were stolen in security breaches “yet to be publicly reported,” and that the breached companies would not even know they’d been hacked until they were notified by outside parties.
Holden also acknowledged that the stolen informations “sheer volume is overwhelming,” and would certainly be incredibly useful for those given to cybercrime. How Hide Security is going to prevent future instances such as this, or
whether they can be prevented at all, remains to be seen.
Source BBC
Advertisement
Learn more about Electronic Products Magazine
