Free Republic

FUD over the current state of cyber insecurity reached a fever pitch this week as thousands gathered in Las Vegas for Defcon and Black Hat. While the hacking conferences served up their usual paranoia-inducing mix -- demos of Dropcam hacks and warnings that mobile apps are spying on us -- first prize for panic mongering this week goes to the New York Times story on Russian hackers who allegedly amassed 1.2 billion stolen Web credentials and half a billion email addresses. Hold Security, which uncovered the database of stolen info, called it "arguably the largest data breach known to date,"...

Through hacks of hundreds of thousands of websites, a Russian crime ring has reportedly gained access to 1.2 billion user name and password combinations, along with hundreds of millions of e-mail addresses. The NY Times reports on records turned up by Milwaukee-based Hold Security, which claims to have turned up evidence of this massive cache of data, stolen from some 420,000 different websites. “Hackers did not just target U.S. companies, they targeted any website they could get, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to very small websites,” Alex Holden, the founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security, tells the...

A Russian crime ring has got its hands on more than a billion stolen Internet credentials, according to a New York Times report. Citing records discovered by Hold Security, the New York Times reported on Tuesday that the stolen credentials include 1.2 billion password and username combinations and more than 500 million email addresses. Research specialist Hold Security, which has a strong track record of uncovering data breaches, says that the stolen data was gathered from 420,000 websites. Organizations affected range from household names to small Internet sites, it said. Last October Milwaukee-based Hold Security identified the disclosure of 153...

Russian gang of computer hackers has gathered a staggering cache of some 1.2 billion stolen usernames and passwords, exposing vulnerability in some 400,000 websites targeted, according to a report Tuesday. The find by Hold Security, a Milwaukee-based firm, also included some 542 million email addresses culled by the crew of twentysomethings based in a small south central Russian city, the New York Times reported. “Hackers did not just target U.S. companies, they targeted any website they could get, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to very small websites,” Alex Holden, the founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security, told...

Cyberspace has become an indispensible component of everyday life for all Americans.  We have all witnessed how the application and use of this technology has increased exponentially over the years. Cyberspace includes the networks in our homes, businesses, schools, and our Nation’s critical infrastructure.  It is where we exchange information, buy and sell products and services, and enable many other types of transactions across a wide range of sectors. But not all components of this technology have kept up with the pace of growth.  Privacy and security require greater emphasis moving forward; and because of this, the technology that has brought many...