Should you worry about the Gmail hack?

The leaked info is thought to be outdated

Social networks buzzed on Thursday with news of a mass hack claiming that 5 million Gmail passwords were leaked on a Russian forum called Bitcoin Security.

With the recent iCould hack going viral, digital consumers have once again gone into panic mode fearing any potential leak of sensitive information. Quick to respond, Google acknowledged the leak but was confident that it was not due to a breach in its own systems and most of the information was outdated and old.

In a statement issued on a  blog post, Google said, "The security of our users' information is a top priority for us. We have no evidence that our systems have been compromised, but whenever we become aware that accounts may have been, we take steps to help those users secure their accounts."

According to them much of the information is old or out-of-date. Many of the accounts are suspended or have been matched to old passwords. The leak appears to have been collected via phishing and hacking over several years.

Google also went on to say the company  responded to the leak by quickly checking all of the stolen credentials to see if they actually worked as Gmail account logins. It found that only one to two per cent worked for the service. Google also secured the few leaked accounts and prompted their owners to change their passwords.

Normally Google's automated anti-hijacking systems blocks many of the login attempts which are unsuccessful, a trigger enough to send out warning to the orignal user about a possible hack

Although gmail accounts in particular may not be in danger, as the leak states random passwords those using identical or similar passwords for their mail accounts and bank accounts should revise it for safety.

Recent leaks

* An iCloud hack in August 2014 led to private photos of many celebrities going viral

* Russia’s Yandex & Mail.Ru faced a leak of 1 million users' e-mail passwords

* Adobe in 2013 reported data hack of over 38 million customers using Adobe ID's and encrypted passwords