In what is colourfully termed a ‘brute force’ attack, hackers use bots to test millions of username and password combinations on different websites – until they find a match.
More than 500 million people’s details were compromised. The records include various combinations of name, email, gender, date of birth, location, relationship status and employer.
Federal government agencies, from the Treasury Department to the National Nuclear Security Administration, have been compromised by the attack.
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