Russian hackers stole 1.2 billion internet credentials in the biggest data breach ever recorded. The Russian band of hackers who penetrated companeis around the world were dubbed “CyberVor” by U.S. firm Hold Security that said that confidential usernames and passwords were stolen from 420,000 websites ranging in sizes from small to housewhold names.

How did they do this?

The cybergang acquired databases of stolen credentials from other hackers on the black market. “To the best of our knowledges they mostly focused on stealing credentials, eventually ending up with the largest cache of stolen personal information, totalling over 1.2 billion unique sets of e-mails and passwords,” said researches from Hold Security that specializes in researching large breaches of data.

What are they doing with the data?

The hackers have been using the information to send spam on social networks like Twitter. They also sent links to malware. They may even sell their records on the lucrative black market.

Who is behind the heist?

Experts from Hold Security are believed to have found the identity of the hackers. They are believed to be less than a dozen men under the age of 20 who know each other well on a personal and professional level.

Who is affected?

It’s hard to tell how many people are affected by the data heist as the list could include old profiles or spam accounts. Not all websites hacked have been named and not all website operators have been reached.

If you want to know if you’ve been affected you can preregister to Hold Security’s Identity Protection Service. CLICK HERE. Preregistration is free for now. Subscribers can check if their names, passwords, account details and other personal data has been stolen and spread online. There are 170 million stolen or phished datasets on the site.

What to do if your data is stolen.

People are advised to change their usernames and passwords and make sure that they use unique passwords for various account. The safest passwords are the ones that don’t consist of people’s usernames, real names, date of birth and other easy to find details.