Gmail hack: Millions of passwords leaked

MILLIONS of Google account passwords have apparently been leaked on a Russian website.

MILLIONS of Google account passwords have apparently been leaked on a Russian website.

A text file allegedly containing account data from almost five million accounts was published to a Russian cyber security internet forum on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

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The passwords published to the Bitcoin Security boars have reportedly been deleted, leaving 4.93 million account logins that could have been affected by the leak.

The publisher of the document told Russian website CNews that much of the data was out of date.

Around 60 per cent of the passwords are believed to be valid, probably obtained from websites where used their Google account detailed to register.

A representative from Google Russia said it was investigating the alleged leak, and reminded users to use strong passwords and enable twostep login verification to protect their accounts.

The leak comes just days after similar mass password dumps on the same Russian Bitcoin forum.

Earlier this week account details of more than six million users of popular Russian internet services Mail.ru and Yandex were published.

The companies told CNews their own databases were not compromised and suggested that the leaked data was accumulated through phishing and other hacking attacks on users.