5 Million Gmail addresses and passwords leaked online
Posted by: Jon Ben-Mayor on 09/10/2014 03:04 PM [ Comments ]
Reports are circulating that over 5 million Gmail addresses and passwords have been spotted on an online archive this past Tuesday. The breach doesn't appear to have been in conjunction to any recent breach - as the information posted seems to be relatively old.
According to PC World, a user with the online alias “tvskit” posted the archive file on a Bitcoin security forum called btcsec.com and claimed that over 60 percent of credentials found inside are valid.
“We can’t confirm that it is indeed as much as 60 percent, but a great amount of the leaked data is legitimate,” said Peter Kruse, the chief technology officer of CSIS Security Group, a Danish security company that provides cybercrime intelligence to financial institutions and law enforcement.
LifeHacker reports that the list has since been taken down, and there's no evidence that Gmail itself was hacked—just that these passwords have been leaked.
If you are a Google account user and wish to check and see if your information has been compromised you may do so with the Knowem tool. We previously had up Is Leaked, but it seems that people have been expressing some issues with that particular tool - so we removed the link to be on the safe side.
“We can’t confirm that it is indeed as much as 60 percent, but a great amount of the leaked data is legitimate,” said Peter Kruse, the chief technology officer of CSIS Security Group, a Danish security company that provides cybercrime intelligence to financial institutions and law enforcement.
LifeHacker reports that the list has since been taken down, and there's no evidence that Gmail itself was hacked—just that these passwords have been leaked.
If you are a Google account user and wish to check and see if your information has been compromised you may do so with the Knowem tool. We previously had up Is Leaked, but it seems that people have been expressing some issues with that particular tool - so we removed the link to be on the safe side.
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