It looks like Popular Russian social network VKontakte has been hacked, and 100 million customers' account details are up for sale.
The alleged hack of the site, which is sometimes referred to as "Russia's Facebook," was first reported by hack-tracking site LeakedSource.
The data taken includes email addresses, names, phone numbers, locations, and unencrypted passwords. It is now being sold online for one bitcoin — around $584, or £404. The sale is new, although the hack apparently happened some time ago — in 2012 or 2013, the hacker selling the data told ZDNet.
However, VKontakte denies it has been hacked, telling Motherboard in a statement: "VK database hasn’t been hacked. We are talking about old logins/passwords that had been collected by fraudsters in 2011-2012. All users’ data mentioned in this database was changed compulsorily. Please remember that installing unreliable software on your devices may cause your data loss. For security reasons, we recommend enabling 2-step verification in profile settings and using a strong password."
Business Insider has not verified the data, but ZDNet's Zack Whittaker got his hands on it and says that "many of [the accounts] turned up valid results" when he searched for them on the site — indicating the data, whatever its source, is legitimate. (Motherboard has done likewise.)
Even though it originates from several years ago, a data dump like this can still have adverse consequences right across the internet. Because lots of people reuse their passwords, hackers can try and use the VKontakte logins to access victims' other accounts. For example, Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter and Pinterest accounts were just hacked — probably because he reused the same password he had used for LinkedIn, which also suffered a mega-hack of 160 million user accounts.
So if you have an account on VKontakte, hurry up and change your password — especially if you're using the same one elsewhere online.
