Russian criminals have stolen 1.2 billion Internet user names and passwords, amassing what could be the largest collection of stolen digital credentials in history, a respected security firm said Tuesday.

There's no need to panic at this point -- Hold Security, the firm that discovered the theft, says the gang isn't in the business of stealing your bank account information. Instead, they make their money by sending out spam for bogus products like weight-loss pills.





The Milwaukee-based firm, didn't reveal the identities of the targeted websites, citing nondisclosure agreements and a desire to prevent existing vulnerabilities from being more widely exploited.

Hold Security founder Alex Holden told CNNMoney that the trove includes credentials gathered from over 420,000 websites -- both smaller sites as well as "household names." The criminals didn't breach any major email providers, he said.

A credential pair consists of a user name -- often an email address -- plus a password. There are roughly half a billion email addresses in the gang's collection, Hold Security says.

Holden said the gang makes its money by hacking into email and social accounts, posing as trusted friends and family and advertising bogus products. That means that if you see strange messages being sent from your email or social media accounts, you might be among those affected.

"It's really not that impactful to the individuals, and that's why they were under the radar for so long," Holden said. "They've ignored financial information almost completely."

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/05/technology/security/russian-hackers-theft/index.html

Putin should hire them to steal US nuclear launch codes if he is as tough as his thinks .Bloody Russians

Who emptied my posts?

In the past I've received e-mails from friends advertising some products like weight loss. Some just had had some luring message to open a link (mostly short code links) and I suspected those mails were not from the e-mail owners. When I reached them on phone, they confirmed my fear. I suspect that most of those e-mail addresses are hijacked when unsuspecting users clicked links from mails they think are coming from their friends.

Don't follow links that you are not sure where they would lead you. When in doubt better confirm what to expect from the sender. They may not have been the ones who sent the link.

I need to become a hacker like these guys.