A hacker has managed to utilize the Pony botnet as means to capture an alarming 2 million user/password combinations for social network accounts, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as Gmail and Yahoo.
Of the 2 million stolen credentials, 1.5 million are used for website logins and around 320,000 for email accounts. FTP, Remote Desktop, and Secure Shell accounts make up the remainder.
While the popular web destinations mentioned above haven’t been compromised themselves, several unfortunate computers of unknowing users have been infected with malware and have thus formed the Pony botnet, a network mainly used for stealing credentials. All affected accounts have been forced to reset their passwords.
As it turns out, many users aren’t even making the effort to secure their accounts. Ignoring security precautions, they’ve resorted to using common passwords, such as 123456, qwerty, and even password itself. To all users out there, it’s time to make your online accounts safe.
[Via CNN]