Wow Russia, you’ve been in the news a lot lately. And I’m not talking about the Sochi Olympics. I’m talking about news events like conflict with Ukraine and the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash. It’s no surprise they’re in the midst of a potential hacking story.
Gmail, one of the world’s most popular email services, has been severely hacked. Almost five million email usernames and passwords have found themselves in a Russian bitcoin forum.? Word got out about this when a suspicious link was posted to a website popular with hackers. The hacked accounts, which count up to 4.93 million, are in English, Russian and Spanish. Over half the tainted accounts can still easily be accessed. One thing Gmail? users can do is avoid any ‘security’ websites that claim to check and see if your username and passwords have been compromised. Cyber criminals love those sites and probably even created some of those sites. It’s been confirmed many of the hacked passwords weren’t even taken from Google. Before I throw Russia under the bus, we don’t know who is behind this hacking, though it’s coincidental the hack was first revealed on a Russian language forum.
They’re other things Gmail users can do. First and foremost, don’t panic. All you have to do is change your password and turn on two-factor authenticity. But I want to get back to where these hacks could come from. Do you understand why so many are suspicious that this originated from Russia or surrounding nations? There’s been a recent history of hackers from Eastern European nations causing a ruckus. Think about the social/political pushing and shoving between the US and Russia in the last couple of years. Is this just another criminal hack attack? Or does this have a deeper, more geopolitical meaning as things heat up internationally?