Gadgetory

there's a pretty good chance that hackers in Russia have your passwords I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update it's time to come to terms with the fact that companies do not have what it takes to keep our data safe from hackers a security firm has uncovered what appears to be the largest known collection of stolen internet passwords and user credentials hold security based in Wisconsin says a Russian gang stole 1.2 billion username and password combinations along with 500 million email addresses it was plucked over time from four hundred and twenty thousand websites the security firm is not releasing which websites were compromised but it claims that it includes well known sites the firm says that some of these sites are still vulnerable so even if you did change your password it could still be hacked again until there's a fix some companies have been notified of the stolen records this gang of twelve Russian hackers pulled off the wide scale data heist thanks to help from software that combed the web for weak spots an army of computers ran programs that poked at websites to find a vulnerability and when a security flaw was found hackers win in full force to pry open the websites database the security firm that revealed the information is also trying to profit off this discovery for a monthly fee you can sign up to see if your information was hacked and a direction to this page with grammatical errors yeah that's nice right now if you use a password on multiple sites it's a good idea to change them come up with a system to not repeat your passwords especially for sites that have your credit card info or other sensitive data and don't use basic dictionary words or your favorite team name get creative create a code phrase with numbers and then prepare to change it again in a month okay so after bumming you out I'll make it up to you with some fun SmartWatch news the original pebble watch now comes in three new vivid neon colors all for one hundred and fifty dollars apiece Motorola's upcoming android wear SmartWatch the Moto 360 could come with a wireless charging dock there a leaked photo from the Italian blog mr. gadget it shows off a possible charging dock for the watch which comes out later this year and timex is creating its own SmartWatch that will not require a smartphone it's good for runners that want to use fitness tracking apps while listening to music and it also has built-in GPS it's called the Timex Ironman one gps plus it gets its own cellular signal on a tts network and it is a bit pricey cost you four hundred dollars it comes out in November that's your tech news update you can get more details at cnet com from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey