Gmail accounts being hacked

[Spanky]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/mar/25/gmail-china-hacking

I thought I was the only one till I searched it on none other then google. I just signed into my gmail account right now and seen that red banner message atop my screen. I naturally changed my password immediately but figured it'd be a good idea to give everyone a heads up.

 

[BigPopov]

easiest way for someone to hack your account is to use a universal password. Hackers will, very easily, steal databases of websites (which sometimes are not even encypted/protected), in that database will be your email address and the password for that site. Most of the time they just use that email, try the password from the stolen databases site, and it will generally work most of the time.

So if you're going to be lazy and have a universal password, at least make sure your email one is unique.

 

[crunchewy]

I don't use a "universal password" and yet my account was hacked as well. Actually two of my accounts were. This isn't a case of easy to guess passwords. I'm guessing that a google server got hacked and the passwords database cracked. One has to wonder if the still have access to that same database, even updated, and perhaps our accounts will get broken into again. I hope not.

Oh, and mine were hacked from California, not China.

 

[RAMSTORIA]

hmm, no red banner when i just logged in.

 

[crunchewy]

I was wrong a bit. My gmail accounts all have the same password, however that password is different from anywhere else. So maybe that still is bad practice? I wouldn't have been possible to get that password from somewhere other then gmail, since it was unique to all my gmail accounts. Still bad?

 

[basilofbkrst]

If the only place you use that PW is google and you get hacked, you'de get hacked all the same with different PWs there.

 

[2DMention]

I just changed my password which used to be universal with all my other sites.

I've used the same password at most places for 11 years with no problems.

 

[strongpimphand]

I had a dream about this last night...but it was about my yahoo email...

 

[Wolfkin]

i got the red banner weeks ago from China. I changed my password from the universal to an anagram. Been using it since the 90s. Been thinking about converting to a different universal password anyway for a few years. Maybe this year I begin making the switch.

 

[Phelmo]

If they are able to hack into the Google databases and get your passwords then everyone would be screwed.. It must be (as the other guy said) that you used to other password somewhere else that they were able to get in to.