It has been reported that at least 180 million Gmail passwords have been compromised in a new data breach.
Following the breach, Gmail users have been urged to check their accounts.
Australian cyber expert Troy Hunt, who revealed the incident, called it a ‘vast corpus’ of breached data, which totals 3.5 terrabytes. He explained that’s the equivalent of 875 full-length HD movies.
According to Mr Hunt, ‘all the major providers have email addresses in there’ – so not just Gmail, but Outlook, Yahoo and others too.
‘They’re from everywhere you could imagine, but Gmail always features heavily,’ Hunt told the Daily Mail.
The incident occurred in April but has only just been disclosed on Mr Hunt’s Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) website.
According to the expert, breached data contained 183 million unique email addresses alongside the websites they were entered into and the passwords used.
Mr Hunt added that the incident is not a single breach but a collection of ‘stealer logs’ – a series of data files generated and compiled by ‘malware’ (malicious software).
‘Stealer logs are more of a firehose of data that’s just constantly spewing personal info all over the place,’ Mr Hunt explained in his blog post.
‘Once the bad guys have your data, it often replicates over and over again via numerous channels and platforms.’
Mr. Hunt urged people to check if they’ve been compromised, by heading to the Have I Been Pwned website and entering their email address in the search bar.
Next, tap on the button marked ‘Check’ and the site will show you the list of data breaches affecting your email address.
