Hackers have been gleaning information for months from multiple payment and email systems, rendering personal data vulnerable for millions.
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Slate Magazine reported on Sept. 10 that Home Depot had confirmed on Monday that its credit card systems had been compromised. More than 60 million credit cards may very well have been stolen. The company’s payment systems had been hacked by malware and though at this time it is unknown the extent of the breach, “the compromised data could end up being “the largest known breach of a retail company’s computer network.”
But maybe you are not worried about all of Home Depot’s more than 2,000 stores’ system being hacked. Take note, however: TIME reported on Sept. 10, that the usernames and passwords of almost 5 million Google accounts “were posted in a Russian Bitcoin security forum by hackers late last Tuesday.” The accounts belonged to speakers of English, Spanish and Russian. The hackers who posted reported that approximately 60 percent of those accounts were active and could be accessed without issue.
Google told TIME that there was no evidence of systems being compromised. “The security of our users’ information is a top priority for us,” they wrote. Whenever there are red flags about accounts being compromised, the company takes immediate steps to help account users secure their accounts more soundly. Reported TIME, “Email users are encouraged to utilize a two-step verification when logging into accounts, as well as to create strong passwords.”
The news of the Bitcoin forum leak had surfaced just a couple of days after another sizeable compromise. Rianovosti reported on Sept. 9, “4.6 million Mail.ru accounts and over 1.25 million Yandex e-mail boxes” had been compromised with information being leaked into a Bitcoin Security forum.
The good news, as reported by the two companies involved is that most of the accounts gleaned via phishing and Trojan viruses over a long period of time, were inactive accounts. The systems belonging to the companies involved were not compromised. The bad news is that these reports point to serious online security issues. Millions of compromised email logins and passwords are now floating around and not secure. Possibly millions of email users are currently rendered vulnerable.
Email providers are strongly suggesting that users should use very strong passwords which also include a two-step verification process. Google has more information about two-step verification here and there are many help pages on the web to assist in learning how to create very strong passwords. CNN has an interesting report on their site showing what hackers might know about you and The Wire published on Sept. 10 an article that informs on how to “check if you were exposed by today’s 5 million password leak.”
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
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