1.2 Billion Passwords Stolen by Russian Hackers

Hold Security, a US-based internet security company has uncovered the allegedly largest security breech in recent years. The Russian-based hackers have apparently been able to steal around 1.2 billion username and password combos, as well as more than 500 million email addresses.
The hackers ran botnets (a system of very large amounts of hijacked computers and networks under the hands of one opretaor) to test websites for SQL vulnerabilities. Once SQL zeroday exploits (unpatched and unknown vulnerabilities) were discovered, the Russian hackers were then able to execute SQL injections which would then steal information from databases.
Security firm Malwarebytes Labs has advised internet users to change their passwords, if they haven’t done so already recently. All internet users are advised to use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters in their passwords, and are also similarly counselled not to use a password more than once.