It was recently revealed that 183 million Gmail Account passwords leaked. The data was compromised by malware, not through a direct attack on Google. This poses a security risk to your accounts. It is recommended that you check your login credentials to determine if your account has been affected.
In this blog post, we will explore what happened to the Gmail account, how to check if your account data has been leaked, and how to protect your data. So let’s start.
What We Know About The 183 Million Passwords Data Leak?
Google responded in a series of posts on Monday, clarifying that Gmail was not the result of a single data breach. In fact, the compromised accounts were part of a collection of credentials obtained over several years through malware and various attacks. The report comes from Troy Hunt, founder of Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), who announced that he had uploaded a massive collection of 183 million compromised credentials to a data breach notification platform.
The credentials were not obtained in a single data breach, but rather through malware, data leaks, credential stuffing, and phishing attacks across thousands or even millions of websites. Users are advised to update their passwords and enable two-factor authentication.
How to Check if You are Compromised with 183 Million Gmail Account Passwords Leaked?
Here are some ways you can check if your account is affected by the 183 million Gmail account data leak:
- Check out “Have I Been Pwned.”
- Visit “Have I Been Pwned.”
- Enter your Gmail address in the search field.
- The website will tell you if your email address has been used in any known data breaches.
- If your Gmail account has been compromised, change your password immediately.
2. Check your recent Gmail activity.
- Open Gmail and scroll down in your inbox, then click “Details.”
- You’ll see your recent activity with your IP address and device location.
- If you see any unknown logins, click “Sign out of all other sessions.”
3. Use Google’s built-in password checker
- Go to passwords.google.com
- Then click “Check passwords.”
- Google will inform you whether your passwords have been compromised, weak, or reused.
4. Check Google’s Security Alerts
Google frequently sends alerts when it detects suspicious login attempts or password leaks.
How to Secure Your Gmail Account?
After the news of 183 million account password leaked, it is important to secure your Gmail account data. It contains important emails, contacts, and much more. You can follow the instructions below to secure your account data:
1. Change Your Passwords
Choose strong, unique passwords, don’t reuse passwords from other websites, and use a password manager to keep them safe.
2. Turn on Two-Step Verification
This prevents hackers from logging in even if they know your password for Follow these steps.
- Go to your Google Account > Security > Turn on two-step verification.
- Enable Google Authentication, SMS code, or passcode.
3. Update your Recovery Options
Remove any old recovery information and add a valid email address and phone number for recovery. This will make it easier to regain access if your account is compromised with 183 million account password leaked.
4. Revoke Access to Suspicious Apps
To do this, follow the steps listed below:
- Go to “Security” > “Third-party apps with account access”.
- Remove any apps you don’t recognize or no longer use.
5. Keep Your Devices Safe
You should regularly scan for malware and keyloggers. Don’t save your passwords on public or shared computers.
Expert Way to Protect Your Data from Hacker Attacks and Viruses
It is recommended to change the account password and enable 2-step verification to avoid data loss due to the 183 million Gmail account password leaked problem. However, creating a regular backup of your Gmail account data is always a good idea to protect your important data from any online threats and accidental deletions. To back up your emails, you can use the Yota Gmail Backup Tool on your Windows computer.
It allows you to download all your emails from your Gmail account to your computer. The software provides support to export Gmail emails to multiple file formats at the desired destination. This allows you to access your emails offline, and you can open them in other email clients, such as Outlook or Thunderbird.
The software provides several features, and some of them are:
- Backup multiple emails from your account at once
- Export Gmail emails to PST, EML, PDF, CSV, etc.
- Download emails from multiple Gmail accounts
- Maintains original email formatting and folder hierarchy
- Supports all versions of the Microsoft Windows OS
Final Words
Here we’ve learned everything about the problem of 183 million Gmail account passwords leaked, how to check if your account has been compromised, and how to protect your data. Regularly changing your password, enabling two-factor authentication, and regularly backing up your Gmail account will help protect your important data.
