The New York Times today published a security report detailing breaches by a team, που πιστεύεται ότι είναι η μεγαλύτερη κλοπή ταυτοτήτων στο Διαδίκτυο. Με βάση την έρευνα που πραγματοποίησε η εταιρεία ασφαλείας Hold Security, Russian hackers have breached 420.000 websites, and collected approximately 540 million unique email addresses post officeυ. Συνολικά έχουν στα χέρια τους 1.2 δισεκατομμύρια ονόματα χρηστών και κωδικών accesss.
What makes matters worse is that most of the affected websites are still vulnerable, according to Hold Security founder Alex Holden. A source told The Times that "some big companies" have been told their data is being freely circulated in the Internet. "
The criminal group is suspected of using the information to promote spam on social networks. The gang is believed to consist of "less than 12 men around 20, who know each other personally."
However, security researchers from Kaspersky, Symantec and University College London dispute the news and report that the private security firm Hold Security has identified the Russian CyberVor group, but is not giving data which confirm the data leak.