Hacker Dumps Around 5 Million Online Credentials of Google Account

Neonnettle.com reported on 11th September, 2014 stating that a Russian hacker compromised near about 5 million accounts of Gmail and then published users' information in a text file on 'btcsec.com', a well-known Russian Bitcoin Security board and leaked both usernames and their corresponding passwords.

Action Fraud, a help center run by London Police, which is a platform to register complaints regarding scams and online crime, notes that the hacking employed sending of bogus emails or phishing messages with links or some attachments by criminals.

These fraudulent emails persuade the recipient to click by convincing the recipient that they are from a genuine reliable source and some even employed recipient's personal details to reduce doubt on the mind of the recipient.

If the message contains a file as an attachment, then that it (that is, file) is probably tainted with malware which permits the attacker to infiltrate the hacker's device such as smartphone, computer or tablet. But if the link is clicked, the victim will be redirected to a bogus website where login or personal credentials may be asked.

However Google defended by saying that dumping of only small percentage of hacked combination of passwords and username would have allowed some hackers to access Gmail accounts.

The search giant (Google) confirmed that less than two percent of combos of email and passwords could actually be used for accessing Gmail accounts.

Arstechnica.com published news on 11th September, 2014 quoting Google's spam and abuse team as saying that their automated anti-hijacking machines would have obstructed efforts of login and we have protected the affected accounts and requested those users to reset their passwords."

The company boasted about its strong security but users currently are not too convinced with these claims.

Meanwhile, Russian Internet forums recently dumped the large file of credentials which is the third one. Files containing the usernames and passwords for 4.7 million Mail.ru and 1.3 million Yandex accounts and two well known Russian Internet services were also recently leaked online. The news service stated that both companies have said that the files were common with obsolete, invalid and fake accounts.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/18/2014