5 Million Google Account Credentials Leaked Online

Close to five million Google account credentials have been leaked online by hackers, according to the IBTimes.

At first glance, most of the accounts seems to belong to people in Russia.

The announcement was made on Bitcoin Security forum by a user dubbed “tvskit” who also posted a link to the leaked email list. The opened thread and the discussions are now available only through cached page services such as Google Cache or Web Archive.

“Experts now understand what happened in this case,” said the Russian office representative of Google Svetlana Anurova. Users should “select strong passwords and be sure to use a two-step authentication.”

It is estimated that 60 per cent of the leaked emails and passwords are still active today, which means that up to three million active users may be impacted, potentially losing control not only of their email but also of other Google services that require an email and password for authentication.

Users can check their Google accounts on the IsLeaked portal which also returns, if the result is positive, the first two characters of the password are returned.

Bitdefender advises users to enable 2-factor authentication on social media platforms and email services.

This leak comes just days after the leaking of more than five million Mail.ru and Yandex account credentials.