If you’ve recently received emails from Google stating that they’ve blocked a sign-in attempt to your Google Account, we would recommend changing your password.
News went out this week that a list of almost 5 million passwords (with their associated addresses) were posted online to a Russian BitCoin forum. If you’d like to check whether your email was one that was leaked, a quick site has been setup for verification: Is my email leaked?
Thankfully, as it turns out, most of the passwords appear to either be old or not actually belonging to Gmail accounts. It’s likely that the passwords were phished from other services that a Gmail user might have logged into.
For more on this, visit the Mashable website: A List of 5 Million ‘Gmail Passwords’ Leaked, But There’s No Need to Panic.
Either way, this serves as a timely reminder to change your password! In an ideal world, there’s a few Password Pointers we should all stick to:
- Never use the same password across multiple accounts.
- Change your password at least once every 6 months.
- Create a password that is at least 6 or more characters.
- Ensure your password is made up of a series of letters (upper and lower case), numbers and symbols.
- Avoid popular combinations like ‘abcd’ or ‘0000’ .
If you’re having difficulty remembering all of your passwords, you could try using a reputable password management software or app like LastPass.