Around 5 million Google usernames and passwords have been leaked online by Russian Hackers on a Russian Bitcoin forum BTCSEC. The Hackers also leaked popular Russian Webs Services Mail.ru and Yandex Accounts.
Google Russia said it is investigating the alleged leak, adding that it advises customers to use strong passwords and enable two-step login verification to protect their accounts, RT reports.
Related: How to Protect Gmail Account from Hackers with 2 Step Verification
Much of the information is old and potentially out-of-date, Google representatives told Russian media, so the so-called “leak” may be more accurately described as a collection of phished and hacked credentials collected over years. In fact, many of the accounts have long been suspended or are matched with very old passwords.
The file contains information on English-, Russian-, and Spanish-speaking users of Google services, such as Gmail and Google Plus. In addition to Google, the leak includes thousands of user credentials for Yandex, the largest search engine in Russia.
Google and Yandex representatives told CNews that while the credentials were stolen through years of phishing and hacking against individuals, their own systems were never compromised.
To protect yourself, change your password and enable two-factor authentication on Google and all your important Internet accounts.
Russia’s Bitcoin Security forum has been the scene of several major leaks over the past several days. On Tuesday, 4.66 million Mail.ru accounts were exposed. Monday, usernames and passwords from 1.26 million other Yandex accounts were published in a text file.
If you want to find out if your account is included in the leak, you can check on isleaked and input your address.