Spammers expose more than a billion mail IDs in botched backups

A database comprising 1.4 billion email addresses has been leaked by a large spamming operation due to a failing backup configuration of its entire operation.

Security researchers at MacKeeper reported that the spam operation had built up a database of 1.4 billion individual email addresses, full names, IP addresses, and other physical addresses.

''The situation presents a tangible threat to online privacy and security as it involves a database of 1.4 billion email accounts combined with real names,  user IP addresses, and often physical address,'' said Chris Vickery,  a security researcher at Mackeeper, Deccan Chronicle reported.

''Chances are that you, or at least someone you know, are affected,'' he added.

According to commentators, the leaked information represented the backbone operation of a marketing firm called River City Media (RCM), that sent about a billion daily emails across the world.

Vickery who is investigating the leaked data's credibility, said he had found addresses which he said were accurate in the database.

''It is a type of Slowloris attack,'' Vickery said, ''purposely throttling your own machinery to amass open connections on someone else's server.''

''I'm still struggling with the best software solution to handle such a voluminous collection, but I have looked up several people that I know and the entries are accurate,'' Vickery told CSO Online. ''The only saving grace is that some are outdated by a few years and the subject no longer lives at the same location.''

Vickery had gone through the massive data dump over the few days and had found the weapons spammers used to attack mail servers.

''There are scripts in here for all sorts of nefarious things that may or may not be patched already. I will go into more detail after I talk to Gmail, Microsoft, and Yahoo,'' he said, Tech Crunch reported.