Gmail passwords part of massive data leak; 183 million users affected

An investigation by cybersecurity experts has revealed that a massive amount of data,183 million passwords, have been leaked by hackers.

A major data breach might have compromised the security of 183 million passwords of internet users, an expert named Troy Hunt has claimed. According to the Daily Mail, this breach happened in April this year and has compromised the security of millions of email accounts across a variety of domains, including Google, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.

183 million passwords leaked in major cyber breach: Here’s how to see if yours was stolen(Pixabay)

183 million passwords leaked

The stolen data amounts to 3.5 terrabytes, which is equal to 875 full-length HD movies, the website reported.

Hunt’s website – haveibeenpwned.com – allows users to check whether their email account has been a victim of a data security breach. The Australian cyber expert says that the passwords weren’t leaked in a single instance, but in a collection of ‘stealer logs’, which are ‘a series of data files generated and compiled by malware'.

“Stealer logs are more of a firehose of data that's just constantly spewing personal info all over the place,” Hunt said in his blog, as quoted by Daily Mail. “Once the bad guys have your data, it often replicates over and over again via numerous channels and platforms.”

Users can go to Hunt’s website and enter their email ID to see if it has been compromised. The website won’t just check the data breach in April, but previous instances too. Users may need to change their passwords and ensure two-step authentication to keep their data secure.

How do hackers steal personal information

UK’s Metro has dived deeper into details about how the network of hackers works to steal the personal data of email users. According to the website, the 183 million passwords were collected from computers infested with a type of malware called ‘infostealers’. This variety of malware records the email ID and password when a user logs into their account. Parts of this massive set of data, called ‘stealer logs,’ are then shared among a very complex network of hackers.

The same outlet also reported that an American college student named Benjamin Brundage, while working with cybersecurity firm Synthient, created a tool to trawl through the ecosystem of hackers and discover data breaches. This tool was able to find that lots of stolen information was on the hackers’ network. As many as 600 million stolen credentials were shared on this network at the peak of its activity.

It was the data collected through this method that Synthient shared with haveibeenpwned.com. That’s where Troy Hunt gathered the information regarding which accounts have been compromised.

With this revelation, the reality of cybersecurity threats endangering the average user has been exposed in a stark manner. The challenge of stopping hackers remains as daunting as ever.

FAQs

Who exposed the massive data breach?

The data breach came to light through a blog post on the Have I Been Pwned website. The data of the breach was originally gathered by the cybersecurity firm Synthient.

How can I check whether my email credentials have been stolen?

Haveibeenpwned.com allows users to search for their email ID and find out whether it has had its credentials stolen.

What type of passwords have been leaked?

Not just email ID passwords but also passwords for other sites – shopping and streaming – have been leaked.