Small IT company of American Wisconsin burst into the headlines of most Western media with a loud headline: Russian hackers have compiled a 1.2 bln logins and passwords through a series of attacks on large and popular resources. Hold Security company claims that a group of hackers using various tools to get the password and logins with almost 420,000 websites across the internet. To understand the scale of the figures in the accounts 1.2 billion equivalent based social network Facebook.
"The purpose of the hackers were not only American companies, they attacked any websites to which could get from the Fortune 500 to very small sites," - said Alex Holden, founder and director of Information Technology Hold Security.
Noteworthy is the fact that the report does not provide Hold Security nor the name of the hacker group, nor the list of attacked resources nor the list of affected companies, nor the motivation of attack. According to experts, the criminal group based "in a small town in the south central part of Russia," in the region, which borders Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Region name is not given, in fact, this description corresponds to the Altai Republic.
In group includes men aged 20 years, who know each other personally. Their computer servers, are believed to also located in Russia. Within this division of labor gangs: one engaged in programming, others steal data. Criminals use a "botnet" - a network of infected computers.
Holden said he sees no connection between hackers and the Russian government. He added that he plans to notify law enforcement. The expert did not mention those who fell victim to hackers, citing the rules of confidentiality and an unwillingness to publicly call the companies whose sites are vulnerable.
In Hold Security added that provide more detailed information on the upcoming Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.