Google and Yahoo investigating 272 million stolen logins

Earlier this week, a security researcher revealed that millions upon millions of Google, Yahoo and Hotmail accounts were being actively traded on the black market. Following on from this news, Google and Yahoo have both said that they are now looking into the breach that saw 272 million account login details stolen.

Google didn't have much to say on the matter when approached by the BBC, simply stating that they “are still investigating” and don't have much more information to share publicly just yet. Yahoo on the other hand were a bit more open about it, saying “We've seen the reports and our team is reaching out to Hold Security to obtain the list of accounts now”, before promising to continually update the situation.

Image via: Faze Media

Microsoft has also spoke up, as The Inquirer points out, on Wednesday the company said that its webmail security should be able to detect any compromised accounts and that the company would help anyone affected to change their details or regain control of any lost accounts.

This breach first came to light earlier this week, when Hold Security had a chat with Reuters. It turns out that the man behind the security firm stumbled across a young Russian hacker bragging about stealing millions and millions of account details. He was able to talk the hacker into handing the information over in exchange for fame. However, Hold Security is now cooperating with the likes of Google and Yahoo to identify the affected accounts.

KitGuru Says: There is no doubt that this was a huge breach but we still don't have the full story yet as we don't fully know how all of these account details were rounded up in the first place. Hopefully anyone affected by this can get their account security sorted fairly quickly.

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