Five million Gmail accounts leaked: Are you at risk?

New Delhi: Panic struck Google users around the globe after it was revealed that Russian hackers had targeted the Internet behemoth and posted usernames and passwords of almost five million accounts online.

After celebrities and the 'high and mighty' were targeted in the Apple iCloud fiasco recently, it made all the sense for regular Google users to feel vulnerable.

One can visit — Isleaked.com — and check whether their's was among the unlucky 5 million accounts that the Russian hackers struck.

The list of compromised user IDs was posted on bitcoin forum btcsec.Com by a user called Tvskit.

The user claimed that about 60% of the passwords are still active.

The same Google account password is used across all Google products like Gmail, Youtube, Hangouts, Drive and Maps.

Acknowledging the leak in a blog post, Google said it had found that "less than 2 per cent of the username and password combinations might have worked."

It further said that Google's automated anti-hijacking systems would have blocked many of those login attempts.

"We have protected the affected accounts and have required those users to reset their passwords," it said.

Last week, nude images of celebrities were leaked from Apple's cloud service.

Google maintained that the leaked usernames and passwords were not the result of a breach of Google systems.

"Often, these credentials are obtained through a combination of other sources," it said.

Cautioning users, Google said they should ensure they use a strong password unique to Google and update recovery options, so that they can get the information on e-mail or phone in case they get locked out of their account.

"And consider 2-step verification, which adds an extra layer of security to your account," it said.