Password breach could have ripple effects well beyond Yahoo

Information security experts worry that the record-breaking haul of password data from Yahoo could be used to open locks up and down the web.

One big worry is a cybercriminal technique known as "credential stuffing," which works by throwing leaked username and password combinations at a series of websites in an effort to break in, a bit like a thief finding keys in an apartment lobby and jamming them, one after the other, into every door in the building.

The spillover effect on other websites has some experts comparing the Yahoo hack to an ecological disaster.

Shape Security's Shuman Ghosemajumder on Sept. 26 compared such breaches to global warming, saying they were progressively making the internet less safe.