2 million stolen passwords for Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo and others leaked online

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/2-million-stolen-passwords-facebook-twitter-google-yahoo-others-leaked-2D11691630

Helen A.S. Popkin NBC News
Dec. 4, 2013

More than 2 million passwords for some of the most popular spots on the Internet — including Facebook, Twitter and Google — are now a matter of public record, according to a fresh report from SpiderLabs, a research arm from security firm Trustwave.

SpiderLabs says it uncovered the bounty of potentially valuable (and often ridiculously simple) log-ins during its latest Internet sweep for the Pony botnet controller, a malware-spreading set of programs which the researchers say they're increasingly encountering online. This means the passwords were not leaked by Facebook and the like, but from thousands of infected computers that collected the data when users logged onto their accounts.