Russian Tyranny!

A Russian crime ring has got its hands on more than a billion stolen Internet credentials, according to a New York Times report.

Citing records discovered by Hold Security, the New York Times reported on Tuesday that the stolen credentials include 1.2 billion password and username combinations and more than 500 million email addresses.

Research specialist Hold Security, which has a strong track record of uncovering data breaches, says that the stolen data was gathered from 420,000 websites. Organizations affected range from household names to small Internet sites, it said.

Last October Milwaukee-based Hold Security identified the disclosure of 153 million stolen credentials from Adobe Systems.

Citing nondisclosure agreements and a reluctance to identify companies still at risk, Hold Security would not name the victims of the hack that resulted in more than a billion stolen Internet credentials. However, a security expert not affiliated with Hold Security analyzed the data and confirmed its authenticity, at the request of the New York Times.