Considering the billions and billions of sensitive information relayed through email, it is unsurprising how users have become more involved in choosing a password that is difficult to guess. However, it seems like these efforts to safeguard one's email information has been proven futile. According to several reports, a hacker has gained access and is spreading email access of over 200 million accounts.

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Hold Security recently published an expose detailing its transaction with a Russian small-time hacker, trying to sell a significant number of email credentials. During their transaction, the hacker asked for 50 rubles for 10 gigabyte worth of accounts. This 10GB of data amounts to more than 1 billion email access.

"At the end, this kid from a small town in Russia collected an incredible 1.17 Billion stolen credentials from numerous breaches that we are still working on identifying. 272 million of those credentials turned out to be unique," read a part of Hold Security's startling report.

Upon Hold Security's investigation, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google email users were affected by the breach. However, most of the email addresses belong to Russian email service - Mail.ru.

Executives from Mail.ru have since commented on the hacker situation. According to a statement published on Mail.ru's official website, the email service has reached out to people from Hold Security in order to confer about the hacked data. They have reassured their users that better security protocols have been in place in order to keep their email accounts safe.

"We've been continuously enhancing the security system of Mail.Ru email service. Last year we launched a two-factor authentication which we strongly recommend all our users to set up, as it is one of the most effective ways to protect an email account," read a part of the Mail.ru's statement.

Despite the security protocols Mail.ru has implemented, there is no denying how daunting the recent email breach is. According to studies, 2.6 billion people use email on a day to day basis, and this number is expected to rise to 2.9 billion before the end of the decade.

At present, the hacker has yet to be identified and reprimanded.

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