MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. Logins and passwords of more than 1.2 million Russians have become freely available on the Internet due to data leaks, the Bi.zone cybersecurity company, a subsidiary of Sberbank, told TASS.
"Bi.zone, a strategic digital risk management company, has helped over 1.5 million Russians check their credentials for leaks containing their logins and open passwords. Owners of more than one million two hundred thousand contacts could become potential victims," a spokesperson with the company said.
Experts note that this information is available not only on the darknet, but also on the regular Internet, and because the information is freely available, attackers do not even need to buy it.
According to Anton Okoshkin, head of the anti-fraud department at Bi.zone, many Russians use the same credentials for multiple sites, so a single leak could lead to all their accounts being hacked. "In most cases, people are used to using the same username and password on a variety of resources: from accounts on social networks and online stores to work services. In such a situation, if your account is compromised on one of them, the risk of hacking all accounts grows," Okoshkin says.
The expert noted that a few hours after the leaked data appeared in the public domain, the attackers started automated verification of user credentials on various services. "It is very important to promptly warn users about the compromise of their data," he stressed.
Almost 1.7 million Russians have already used Bi.zone's credentials verification service.
The database of leaks is updated on weekly basis. The company's experts remind users that they need to immediately change their passwords if they find out that their data has been compromised.