5 million Google Gmail Accounts and passwords leaked

eva2000 · Sep 11, 2014

5 million Gmail accounts and passwords have been leaked it seems but there's conflicting info.

Time to update passwords or enable 2 step authentication if you haven't already

Five Million 'Gmail Accounts and Passwords of Mostly Russia-Based Users Leaked Online'

Gmail passwords leak online, but you may not need to panic

5 million Gmail passwords leaked onto the web in another Russian hack : T-Lounge : Tech Times

From SMH article

A list of almost 5 million combinations of Gmail addresses and passwords was posted online on Tuesday. But the passwords seem to be old, and they don't appear to actually belong to Gmail accounts. Instead, it seems that many of the passwords were taken from websites where users used their Gmail addresses to register, according to some of the leak's victims as well as security experts.

For example, someone might have signed up for a website with the username "myaddress@gmail.com" and the password "mypassword." The list exposed this week makes it look like "mypassword" is the password for the Gmail account itself, but the user's actual Gmail password might be totally different.

The list was posted on a Russian Bitcoin forum on Wednesday, and US media started reporting on it overnight.

We can't confirm the authenticity of all the email addresses on the list, but a Mashable employee, Evan Engel, saw that his old Gmail password, which he hasn't used in years, is part of the leak.

A Google spokesman told Mashable that the company has "no evidence that our systems have been compromised," and security experts seem to agree that the passwords are either old Gmail passwords obtained through phishing, or are passwords that were actually used on other sites.

Matteo Flora, a computer security expert, reviewed the dumped file and found that around 60 email addresses were in his address book. After he alerted those people, 30 of them told him that the password either was never used for their Gmail accounts or was very old, Flora told Mashable.

Chester Wisniewski, a senior security adviser for security firm Sophos, told Mashable that he expects many of these accounts not to be valid. "There is no honor among thieves as they say, and often stunts like this are released as a sad attempt at gaining credibility among other criminals," he said.

Several Reddit users also confirmed that they found their email addresses in the leak, but that the associated password has never been their Gmail password.
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BamaStangGuy · Sep 11, 2014

I don't use my google password anywhere else so I am good.

eva2000 · Sep 11, 2014

BamaStangGuy said: ↑

I don't use my google password anywhere else so I am good.
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Using 2 step authentication ?

BamaStangGuy · Sep 11, 2014

eva2000 said: ↑

Using 2 step authentication ?
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Only on business account. My personal account is a nightmare with all the apps and such that I use.

eva2000 · Sep 11, 2014

BamaStangGuy said: ↑

Only on business account. My personal site is a nightmare with all the apps and such that I use.
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know what you mean all my gmail and google app accounts have 2 step authentication enabled it's annoying but oh well

rdan · Sep 11, 2014

eva2000 said: ↑

Using 2 step authentication ?
Click to expand...

Yes of course

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