(Inputs from CNN)

Chicago: Data security has become a major concern, with users being vulnerable at the hands of hackers. Despite the rising concern, several accounts and websites are hacked regularly for destructive reasons. Chicago-based cyber-security firm Trustwave found shocking evidence of almost 2 million passwords being stolen.

The hackers had been collecting this enormous data from well-known websites including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, and several others around the globe.

Hackers started collecting the data by infecting several personal computers and by setting up keylogging software that sent stolen information through a proxy server to the hackers.

The virus was capturing log-in credentials for key websites over the past month and sending those usernames and passwords to a server controlled by the hackers.

The hacked accounts statistics are as follows:

318,000 Facebook accounts
70,000 Gmail, Google+ and YouTube accounts
60,000 Yahoo accounts
22,000 Twitter accounts
9,000 Odnoklassniki accounts (a Russian social network)
8,000 ADP (ADP, Fortune 500) accounts (ADP says it counted 2,400)
8,000 LinkedIn accounts

John Miller, a security research manager at Trustwave informed, “Trustwave notified all the companies affected by the attack and posted the findings online on Tuesday although we don’t have evidence they logged into these accounts, but they probably did.”
“Although the hacking process started in October the process is still ongoing the company tracked the Netherlands server but other servers remain anonymous”, he added.