5 Million Gmail User’s Passwords Leaked
On Wednesday, a list containing more than 5 million Gmail users’ email addresses and passwords appeared on a Russian Bitcoin forum. Security experts are yet to determine just how someone could obtain such a vast amount of passwords.
On its part, Google has said that there has not been any security breach on its servers. Google’s spokeswoman, Caroline Mattews said, “We have no evidence that our systems have been compromised.”
It is said that the list of passwords looks similar to those that were exposed in previous hacks, and that they are likely to have been obtained from users’ own computer and not from Google’s systems. Also, according to Google, the list has not yet been determined if indeed it is authentic.
For those whose email address has appeared on that list; Google has locked them out of their accounts and is directing them to another Google site where they can reset their passwords, thus regain access to their accounts. Google has further advised its users to beef up their Gmail account’s security by creating stronger passwords and using the 2-step verification when signing into their accounts.
If you have so far not heard from Google and you are worried about your account, there is an upcoming blog post where Google will be directing users to another site where you can check to see if your email address is listed there.