Another day, another plea for you to change your password.
As IDG noted, a file was posted on a bitcoin security forum that claimed to include almost 5 million Gmail addresses and passwords.
It appears, however, that much of the data is old or most of the passwords don’t actually match with the
accounts on the list. Mashable suggested that data was likely gathered via various data breaches and includes emails and passwords for websites or third-party services rather than Gmail itself.
Can passwords be leaked?
You could easily be among that majority without even knowing it. Those leaked emails often lead hackers directly to your passwords for other online accounts and identity theft, Lookout said. Here’s the company’s list of the 20 passwords most commonly found on the dark web, due to data breaches
For example, you might use your Gmail email to log in to Amazon, but you (hopefully) do not use the same password for Gmail and Amazon. If the hackers breached Amazon, they’d have the email-password combo you used for Amazon, but not Gmail.