Data theft startles e-mail users - www.dw.de

a such a rush the website of the BSI has probably never experienced. When it became known that online criminals have cracked million e-mail accounts, the server of the Office went to the quantity of queries in the knee.

“We have about 200,000 requests per hour, which is a tremendous amount,” the president of the Federal Office for Security of the newspaper “Tagesspiegel” in Berlin said in Information Technology (BSI), Michael Hange. The server capacity would therefore increased, “so that as many people can check whether they are affected or not.”

data of 16 million e-mail accounts stolen

According to BSI were the stolen access data of 16 million e-mail subjects discovered in the analysis of botnets, including eight million with the extension de. The records usually contain an email address and a password, said the BSI.

Botnets are networks of hijacked computers that have been infected often without the knowledge of users with malicious software. Criminals use such “zombie computers” for example to en masse to send e-mails with advertising or malicious programs.

“Behind botnets plugged hell of a lot of criminal energy and clearly an evil will,” emphasizes the BSI. Because there will determine the office wanted to make no further information to the source of the data. That there was a police investigation and still are The Federal only confirmed.

review by BSI

on the website of the BSI can check whether they are affected by the theft of digital identity internet users. After entering the respective e-mail address it is compared with the data from the botnets. There is a hit in this review, the user’s computer is probably infected with malicious software, such as a spokesman for the authority in Bonn said. The BSI then send a message with tips on what to do. Who do not receive mail from the BSI, is not affected by the data theft.

Carefree with passwords

volatile nature receives the data theft, according to experts through the frivolous habit of many internet users to use their e-mail password for other services, such as online networks like Facebook or shopping sites. Who wins a service that can in these cases, access to other profiles.

The BSI recommends interested parties to examine all the used computer for malicious software. In addition, where appropriate, should all the passwords for online services are subject to change. How convenient and carefree many users behave with passwords, shows a new study by the U.S. security services provider SplashData. “123456″ is therefore went up to the most popular and therefore the worst password. The little safer “password” dropped to second place, followed by the variant “12345678″. Number ten is “iloveyou”.

wl / qu (dpa, afp, rtr)