A database of what appears to be five million login and password pairs for Google accounts has been leaked to a Russian cyber security internet forum.
According to Panarmenian, the text file containing the alleged compromised accounts data was published late on Tuesday on the Bitcoin Security board. It lists 4.93 million entries, although the forum administration has since purged passwords from it, leaving only the logins.
The accounts are mostly those of Google users and give access to Gmail mail service, G+ social network and other products of the US-based internet giant. The forum user tvskit, who published the file, claimed that 60 percent of the passwords were valid, with some users confirming that they found their data in the base, RT reported citing CNews, a popular Russian IT news website.
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.