Hackers have stolen usernames and passwords for nearly two million accounts at Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo and others, according to a report released this week.
The massive data breach was a result of keylogging software maliciously installed on an untold number of computers around the world, researchers at cybersecurity firm Trustwave said. The virus was capturing log-in credentials for key websites over the past month and sending those usernames and passwords to a server controlled by the hackers.
On Nov. 24, Trustwave researchers tracked that server, located in the Netherlands. They discovered compromised credentials for more than 93,000 websites, including:
- 318,000 Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) accounts
- 70,000 Gmail, Google+ and YouTube accounts
- 60,000 Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) accounts
- 22,000 Twitter (TWTR) accounts
- 9,000 Odnoklassniki accounts (a Russian social network)
- 8,000 ADP (ADP, Fortune 500) accounts (ADP says it counted 2,400)
- 8,000 LinkedIn (LNKD)accounts
Miller said the team doesn't yet know how the virus got onto so many personal computers. The hackers set up the keylogging software to rout information through a proxy server, so it's impossible to track down which computers are infected.
Among the compromised data are 41,000 credentials used to connect to File Transfer Protocol (FTP, the standard network used when transferring big files) and 6,000 remote log-ins.
The hacking campaign started secretly collecting passwords on Oct. 21, and it might be ongoing: Although Trustwave discovered the Netherlands proxy server, Miller said there are several other similar servers they haven't yet tracked down.
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