In the same vein as the “phones that will stop running WhatsApp” beat, Brazilian news sites seem to have found a new evergreen click source for tech desks imported from Forbes’: millions of leaked Gmail passwords.
There is, in fact, a database of that type circulating online, created by an undergraduate student in the United States. Troy Hunt, who runs Have I Been Pwned, a breach repository, analyzed the data and found that “only” 8% of the passwords — about 14 million — are new. That makes sense, given the database was glued together by aggregating entries from multiple sources and prior breaches.
The main takeaway from a story like this isn’t “your Gmail password may have leaked,” but rather that “any of your passwords could leak at any time.” Not to spread alarm, but to encourage awareness of good digital security practices.
Which ones? For this situation, mostly these two:
- Use a password manager. It makes easy creating and retrieving strong, unique passwords for each service.
- Enable two‑factor authentication (or two‑step verification). It can be integrated with the very same password manager for easier adoption. In a breach, the second factor blocks unauthorized access even if someone has your password.
You can check whether your passwords have leaked by entering your email at Have I Been Pwned. If it shows up, there’s no need to panic: change the password and enable a second authentication factor. Google explains how to do this for Gmail.
