Google provides more details on potential Gmail account leak
Yesterday, we reported on an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on which way you look at it) episode of an account leak. A database of Gmail accounts was posted to a Russian bitcoin site. This wasn’t a breach (that is, someone sneaking into Google’s servers and getting credentials), but instead a product of many years of phishing and social engineering — that is, tricking people into putting their Gmail username and password into an untrustworthy site.
It could also be the result of a different site getting breached and them putting the email address associated to that account into their nasty database. The latter scenario would only affect your Gmail account if you happen to use the same password across multiple sites, and if you’re doing that then you should stop immediately.
Today, more details have been brought to light. Google confirmed that only a small subset of the accounts in that database were actually affected — less than 2%, according to them — and that they have already taken necessary steps to protect those users. The other accounts are either already purged or they simply don’t exist, so as of now no one should be in danger of having their accounts breached.
At the end this all served as a good reminder to take the time and effort to make sure you’re never being manipulated into giving your username and password to people you don’t know. Check the security certificate of a site before you login to make sure you are actually at that site.
Most web browsers will show a green button with a lock icon which you can click to find out if the website is genuine. This episode also reminds us that it’s never a good idea to use the same password on multiple sites, and that you should be changing your password fairly often (at least once every few months, if not more frequently). And, as always, we recommend setting up 2-step verification on your Gmail account just to have that added peace of mind.