Alleged Ukrainian hacker connected to massive “Collection 1” stolen data arrested

Authorities in Ukraine have arrested a man they allege to be the hacker named Sanix, who is responsible for putting a massive database of 773 million email addresses and 21 million passwords up for sale last year in Jan 2019.

Sanix the alleged hacker arrested

The SSU says it arrested Sanix in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine. Authorities did not release the hacker's name.

The individual was what security experts would call a data broker. He collected data leaked from hacked companies and assembled the information in large lists of usernames and passwords.

Sanix, who also operated under the nickname of Sanixer on Telegram, is the person responsible for initially assembling a series of user and password combos known as Collection #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, Antipublic, and others. These collections amounted to terabytes of data and billions of unique username-password combinations.

Known as Collection 1, the database of breached emails was discovered on a popular underground hacking forum on Jan. 17, 2019. At the time Troy Hunt, the researcher behind the HaveIBeenPwned database, quantified the trove of data as 1,160,253,228 unique combinations of email addresses and passwords.

“The hacker had at least seven similar databases of stolen and broken passwords, the total amount of which reached almost terabytes,” according to the release. “These included personal, including financial, data from residents of the European Union and North America.”

Sanix is currently cooperating with Ukrainian authorities to prepare “a report on suspicion of unauthorized interference with computers” and their unauthorized sale or dissemination, according to the SSU release.

If nothing else, this speaks to the massive amount of personal information floating around on the internet, ready to be scooped up by hackers like Sanix. It should also be a reminder to make sure your accounts are as secure as possible.