Russian criminals have stolen more than 1.2 billion
Internet usernames and passwords, and the odds are
decent that some of yours might be among them.
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.
That means you need to stay on your guard. If you see strange
messages being sent from your email or social media accounts, you
might be among those affected.
Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself:
Change your passwords and make them smart: When it comes
important services, including email, banking and social media, you'll
want to change those passwords. As a rule, create different passwords
for different services,and change them every six months or so.
There's a lot of debate about what makes for the best password.
Some experts recommend using a password manager -- a single
service that you log into which then generates random passcodes for
all your accounts.
But the danger with password managers is that they create a single
point of failure: if the password manager itself is compromised, all
your accounts become vulnerable.
Another solution is to use long sentences or phrases. The more
characters you add to a password, the more difficult it is for a
computer program to crack -- even if your password is a simple
sentence that's easy to remember ("I Need 2 Spend Less Time On
Social Media".
Be careful what you store electronically: Never email your Social
Security number, because it'll stay in your archives. Erase old
messages with your bank account information and credit card
numbers. And never keep a saved document that serves as a master
list of passwords. For hackers, that's a treasure map.
Use protection: While they're not foolproof, there are a number of
tools available to improve your digital security. Download antivirus
software. Be diligent about software updates. Whenever possible, use
two-factor authentication, a system available on many services that
requires both a password and a one-time code generated by a mobile
device.
Lastly, when connecting to any website that uses your personal
information, make sure you're using a secure, encrypted connection.
Here's how to spot it: Look at the address bar above. Does the
website URL start with HTTP or HTTPS? There's a difference. The
added "s" stands for "secure."
Related: How hackers could access your car
Make a throwaway email address: In this latest hack, the Russian gang
gathered their trove of digital credentials from websites that make you
register with a password and username (often an email address).
For accounts that you wouldn't be concerned about having hacked --
say, your profile on a news site that you don't read often -- you can
make a throwaway email address and password that you use strictly
for registration purposes.
Reusing this password shouldn't be a problem, provided you limit it
to services from which you won't be getting any important
communications, like personal messages or details of financial
transactions. Then you can focus your mental energy on securing the
accounts that really do matter.
Don't be stupid: Much of protecting yourself online comes down to
using your common sense. If you can use the Internet well enough to
read this article, you probably know the basics: Don't download files
from unfamiliar sources. Check where a link will take you before
clicking on it. Don't respond to wildly ungrammatical emails offering
access to Viagra or secret Nigerian bank accounts.
None of these tactics are completely fail-safe, but taken together,
they'll make you a much less attractive target to scammers online.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/06/technology/security/russian-password-safety/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Please let's not pretend that only Russians hack. Americans, Chinese, etc all hack as well

oops!

China is the worst worst out there. They are mainly responsible for over 50% of the world's cyber attack.

Probably because they've had to deal with restrictions all their lives and have learnt to come up with ingenious ways to bypass them

Lets not forget US, Russia and Taiwan as well

Oxone: China is the worst worst out there. They are mainly responsible for over 50% of the world's cyber attack.

Probably because they've had to deal with restrictions all their lives and have learnt to come up with ingenious ways to bypass them

Lets not forget US, Russia and Taiwan as well

Western news says that China is the worst but I don't necessarily agree. I highly doubt that they spy on their own citizens. Since Windows OS the most widely used operating system is an American operating system, Americans do it the most. Windows OS has so many backdoors for malicious intent. It's really a shame when a country starts spying on its own people

Fulaman198:

Western news says that China is the worst but I don't necessarily agree. I highly doubt that they spy on their own citizens. Since Windows OS the most widely used operating system is an American operating system, Americans do it the most. Windows OS has so many backdoors for malicious intent. It's really a shame when a country starts spying on its own people

Ofcourse nobody is talking about spying on their own citizens but most serious hacks of the past 5 years originated out of china. There's the tiniest possibility that these could be hackers in other location using china's proxy servers but i highly doubt that.

No doubt there are government sponsored hacker groups in all major countries US, Russia, China, EU in their quest for information which ultimately is power but china takes the cake