Google disputes false claims of massive Gmail data breach
Google was once again forced to announce that it had not suffered a data breach after numerous news outlets published sensational stories about a fake breach that purportedly exposed 183 million accounts.
This claim began over the weekend and into today, with news stories claiming that millions of Gmail accounts were breached, with some outlets saying it affected the full 183 million accounts.
However, as the company explained in a series of posts on Monday, Gmail did not suffer a breach, and the compromised accounts were actually from a compilation of credentials stolen by information-stealing malware and other attacks over the years.
"Reports of a 'Gmail security breach impacting millions of users' are false. Gmail's defenses are strong, and users remain protected," reads a post on X.
"The inaccurate reports are stemming from a misunderstanding of infostealer databases, which routinely compile various credential theft activity occurring across the web. It's not reflective of a new attack aimed at any one person, tool, or platform."
"Several inaccurate claims surfaced recently that incorrectly stated that we issued a broad warning to all Gmail users about a major Gmail security issue. This is entirely false," Google added.
This is just the latest such story that numerous news websites and cybersecurity companies have reported without verification in recent years.
This particular story stems from Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) creator Troy Hunt announcing he recently added a massive collection of 183 million compromised credentials to the data breach notification platform shared by the threat intelligence platform Synthient.
These credentials were not stolen in a single data breach, but rather through information-stealing malware, data breaches, credential stuffing, and phishing. Furthermore, these accounts are not for a single platform but for thousands, if not millions, of sites.
Threat actors commonly collect exposed credentials and combine them into massive c
