Biggest cyber crime ever affects 1.2 billion

Only a matter of weeks after there were two significant cyber attacks that posed a threat to computer users around the globe, a further criminal move has  been uncovered.

A US technology company says that login details for more than one billion people have been compromised.

Hold Security released the news through its website, asking readers if their computers have been hacked. The firm has accused a gang from Russia of being behind the attack.

The CyberVors is believed to have hacked more than 4.5bn records, 1.2bn of which are login details of websites and users’ accounts.

The gang has also come into possession of more than 500m email addresses.

Hold Security served this warning:

“Your data has not necessarily been stolen from you directly. It could have been stolen from the service or goods providers to whom you entrust your personal information, from your employers, even from your friends and family.”

The list of websites affected by the breach includes numerous leaders from almost all industries throughout the world, in addition to a large number of small and individually owned websites.

The publication then revealed that another cyber crime professional, who has evaluated the information, said some large companies knew that their data was affected by the breach.

Cyber crime has been an increasing problem in recent years, and this incident in particular should get the attention of business owners, encouraging them to ramp up their IT security recruitment. Their data depends on it.