Social networks are attacked by Hackers

Hackers stole usernames and passwords of nearly two million accounts in Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, and other companies, according to a report released this week.

The leak was caused by a malicious software installed on a computer unspecified number worldwide, according to researchers at the firm Trustwave. The captured virus to enter the access key sites in the last month and sending that data to a server controlled by hackers.

On November 24, Trustwave investigators traced the server located in the Netherlands. They found 93,000 hits committed websites including:

318,000 Facebook accounts
70,000 Gmail accounts, Google and YouTube.
60,000 Yahoo accounts
22,000 Twitter accounts
Odnoklassniki 9,000 accounts (a Russian social network)
ADP accounts 8,000
8,000 LinkedIn accounts
Trustwave notified the companies of the leak data and published their results on Tuesday.

“We have no evidence that they have entered into these accounts, but they probably did,” said John Miller, a manager Trustwave security.

Facebook and Twitter told CNNMoney that have been renewing their commitment keys for all users.Google, Yahoo, ADP and LinkedIn did not respond immediately.

Miller said the team does not yet know how the virus came to many computers, as hackers installed software to route information through a proxy server, making it impossible to trace the infected computers.

Among the 41,000 compromised data are credentials used to connect to File Transfer Protocol, the network used when working from home.

The campaign began collecting keys hackers on October 21, and could be in operation yet: although Trustwave discovered server in the Netherlands.

Miller said there are other similar servers that have not been located.

Want to know if your computer is infected? Search programs will not be sufficient, because the virus works hidden, the expert said. Your best bet is to update the antivirus and Internet download patches from Adobe and Java.

Of all the services involved, the more worrying is ADP. The keys are used by HR staff that handles the salaries of employees. Such information can be viewed by hackers.

“They may have entered the pay checks and change people,” Miller speculated.