The scale of a phishing attack originally thought to be directed at Hotmail may be larger than previously thought.

BBC News has seen a list of more than 20,000 more names and passwords that have been posted online.

The list contains e-mail addresses and passwords from Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail and other service providers.

The list was published on the same website as the original list of 10,000 Hotmail login details.

Some of the accounts appear to be old, unused or fake. However, BBC News has confirmed that many – including Gmail and Hotmail addresses – are genuine.

Other addresses include Comcast and Earthlink accounts.

It is not clear whether the list was part of the same phishing attack that collected the Hotmail addresses or a separate scam.

Phishing involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing details such as bank account details or login names.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said phishing was an “industry-wide problem”.

“Our guidance to customers is to exercise extreme caution when opening unsolicited attachments and links from both known and unknown sources, and that they install and regularly update their anti-virus software.”

Password change

Technology blog neowin.net was the first to publish details of the original attack. It said the accounts were posted on 1 October to pastebin.com, a website commonly used by developers to share code.

The Pastebin website is currently down for maintenance.

Its owner, Paul Dixon, posted a note on the site in the wake of neowin’s revelations saying that it had received “an unprecedented amount of traffic“.

“Pastebin.com is just a fun side project for me, and today it’s not fun. It will remain offline all day while I make some further modifications,” he said.

Security expert Graham Cluley of Sophos advised users to change their passwords as soon as possible.

“I’d also recommend that people change the password on any other site where they use it,” he said.

About 40% of people use the same password for every website they use, he added.

news.bbc.co.uk

International Day of the Internet trying to enter several times on different dates, but none of them did not become a tradition.

In Russia the tradition was uploaded on September 30. Celebrating the World Wide Web “was initiated in 1998 by IT Infoart Stars, which is sent to firms and organizations of the proposal to designate Sept. 30 the Day of the Internet and conduct a census of ” population Runet “- at that time reached 1 million users.

In other countries, the International Day is celebrated on the Internet on April 4, the day of the medieval Archbishop of Seville, who created a prototype of the modern Internet – 20-volume encyclopedia of human knowledge. That is what many consider the holy heavenly patron of the World Network.

According to the Public Opinion Foundation in March 2009, the number of Internet users in Russia reached 37.5 million people, representing one third (33%) of the population. At the same time once a week in the Network in Russia leave 30.4 million people or 27% of the population, 20.6 million Russians, or 18% of the total population go online every day. The most active Internet users, according to the FOM, live in Moscow, where 80% of the total number of users or 4.2 million people go online every day, and 92% (4.9 million) at least once a week.

Most Russians go to the Internet from home: 79% of home users have online access, 34% of users go online from work. Using the cellular network in the fall about 9% of Russians (3.2 million). In Moscow, with 90% of users have home access to the Web.

According to the POF, the most numerous category of users from 18 to 24 years. It use the Internet 67% of respondents. Among users aged 25-34 have access to the network 54% of users. Among users aged 35-44 have access to the Web in 41% of respondents, while the least numerous web users in the group older than 55 years. Among them are Internet users, only 6% of respondents. Moreover, among Muscovites aged 18-24 and 25-34 years old web users are 93% of respondents, while among those older than 55 years – 17%.

Education Russia’s Web users in most cases is higher or incomplete higher education: in this group of Internet users 65% of the respondents. Among users with specialized secondary education in the Internet go only 33% among those with secondary education – 24%, incomplete secondary, – 5%. In Moscow, among those who have not even finished school, in the network goes nearly a fifth of those surveyed – 19%.

With the growing popularity of the Internet emerged and negative aspects of its application. In July 2008, at the annual meeting of the British Royal College of Psychiatrists, it was suggested that the generation of 1990, which the world without the Internet simply is unknown, can develop “potentially dangerous” view of the surrounding world and his own personality.

According to doctors, children who have become accustomed from the cradle to the social networks, may have difficulty in actual relationships with people, as little knowledge of the subtle nuances of facial expressions, tone of voice and body language. Japanese psychiatrist Himanshu Tyagi believes that these resources form the teenagers the wrong impression that love and friendship can easily win and just as easy to destroy.

Also, the psychiatrist said that people who are accustomed to the rapid flow of internet life, the reality may seem too boring, and they may try to “revive” it by making impulsive actions, including attempts to commit suicide – because they tend to understate the value of real life.

Other dangers in the Internet user – is addictive. The term “Internet addiction” is defined as an obsessive desire to enter the Internet, while offline, and the inability to withdraw from the Internet, being online. The number of people who are attracted to the virtual world so that they begin to prefer its reality, according to various studies, approximately 10% of users.

No wonder that over time the world community has to celebrate another holiday – International Day without the Internet. ” January 27 of each year, festival organizers invite all at least once a year to live exclusively in the “real” world.

On September 30 the Day of the Internet as part of the Contest Prize Runet traditionally starts on the main stage of the All-Russia online promotion “People’s Choice” in which Internet users for nearly two months to vote for their favorite projects online.

In the course of action “People’s Choice”, the participants determine the “People’s top ten” (10 projects leading up to the vote) and a “popular leader” – a project with the highest number of votes of Internet users, who will receive a golden statuette Runet Award – National Prize of Russia for contributing to the development of Russia’s segment of the Internet.

Day of the Internet has not yet been officially defined holiday. Similar holidays are celebrated on different days, for example, 4 April – in honor of the famous 404 error.

www.rian.ru