Phishing Attack Exposes Quarter Million Users

Many Internet users may have been scammed into giving up passwords to phishing expeditions.  The security breach was discovered on the weekend when thousands of passwords were discovered on the net.  Hotmail users have been urged to change their passwords.

"More than a quarter of a million email accounts on the biggest webmail services are believed to be at risk from online criminals after thousands of passwords belonging to users of the Yahoo, AOL and Gmail services were posted online.

The breach, likely to be the accumulation of a number of separate phishing attacks using fake sites to lure people to leave login details, is believed to be one of the biggest of its kind"Guardian Unlimited

Many people use the same password for multiple applications.  This exposes users to theft and loss of control of their e-mail accounts.

Phishing is the term used to describe fake web pages that look credible.  Criminals use those fake web pages to elicit personal information which can be used to steal identities, and steal money from bank accounts.