Hackers selling off Web credentials amassed in huge databases

Cyber-criminals have amassed so many credentials for various social networks and Web services that they are now creating the equivalent of discount factory outlets to sell them off, Trusteer Research reports.

The Web security vendor found advertisements offering to sell a database of user credentials by country. The advertising fraudster claims to have an active botnet collecting the information and has compiled 80 GB of data from victims.

The hackers are also offering up login credentials for cPanel, a control panel application used by many Web site hosts for users to manage their content. Those logins could give unauthorized users access to Web sites to load it with malware, and infect the machines of visitors.