Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo mail account details openly traded by Russian mafia

The details of almost 300 million Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and other email accounts are being freely traded by Russian criminals, according to Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security.

Holden was the man who last year uncovered the largest data breach to date. He claims to have found the details of 272.3 million stolen accounts being traded across the Russian criminal underworld. 

And it is Russians who are most likely to be targeted, too. Russia’s own Mail.ru email service accounts for the majority of hacked accounts at 57 million, but a large number also belong to Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail users.
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Yahoo Mail credentials totalled 40 million, or 15 per cent of the haul, Hotmail accounted for 33 million, or 12 per cent, while 24 million, or nine per cent, belonged to Gmail account holder.  

It wasn’t just email accounts that were targeted, according to Reuters, with Holden also discovering thousands of other stolen username and password combinations that appear to belong to employees of some of the largest US banking, manufacturing and retail companies.

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