Russian hackers steal passwords of billion users

A Russian crime ring has gathered the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials, including 1.2 billion user names and passwords and more than 500 million email address, the New York Times reports. The discovery was made by the US-based Hold Security firm which has a history of uncovering significant hacks. The confidential material includes information from 420,000 websites. The firm declined to disclose more information but said smaller websites remain vulnerable to attack. They identified the hacking ring as operating in a small city in south central Russia. The disclosure comes as hackers and security companies gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Black Hat security conference this week.

Read the full story on the New York Times.

Hacker using laptop image via Shutterstock