Earlier this week, the usernames and passwords of 4.93 million Gmail and Google Plus accounts were posted on ?Bitcoin Security,? a Russian forum website, that country’s CNews reports. An excel file, uploaded to the site by one with username ?tvskit,? contained email addresses and passwords of accounts that appear to be of English, Russian and Spanish languages. Over 60 percent of the accounts are active, the poster claimed.
Google told CNews that the accounts were compromised by hacking, and were not stolen from its own system. Use of its new ?2-Step Verification? is recommended to avoid password theft.
Gmail and Google Plus users can check if their passwords have been stolen via IsLeaked, a website recently created to keep records of compromised accounts. Its database was updated yesterday to include the Bitcoin Security incident. Yahoo and Hotmail accounts are in the records, too.
The site is secure to use, its operators assert. IsLeaked doesn’t collect user data, the site reads, and users don’t have to apply their full email addresses, either; up to three characters can be omitted and replaced with asterisks.
?Our primary objective is always to be on the lookout for new publicly accessible databases for our users to be able to hedge against any maltreatment of email accounts and personal data as soon as possible.?
The Sept. 9 posting is just the latest hacker exchange on the same Bitcoin Security site. The day before, passwords were posted to over 1 million accounts of Yandex, a free Russian email service. On Sept. 10, 4.66 million Mail.ru email passwords were posted.
Last month, a U.S. internet security company revealed that a Russian crime gang illegally collected over 1 billion usernames and passwords.
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