With millions of Gmail accounts appearing in a recent global password spill, it’s worth seeing if you’re on that list.
Google has responded to the headlines and user panic, making it clear “reports of a ‘Gmail security breach impacting millions of users’ are false. Gmail’s defences are strong, and users remain protected”.
Their team says “the inaccurate reports are stemming from a misunderstanding of infostealer databases, which routinely compile various credential theft activity across the web. It’s not reflective of a new attack aimed at any one person, tool, or platform”.
Reports from Forbes have revealed that around 183 million Gmail login credentials have surfaced as part of a huge 3.5-terabyte database of stolen data.
However, Google and security experts are adamant that these credentials were not stolen from Gmail itself. Instead, they were scraped from infected devices due to infostealer malware — malicious software that nicks usernames and passwords from all sorts of sites, not just Google’s.
The breach happened in April 2025 and cybersecurity researcher Troy Hunt — who runs the well-known breach alert site Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) — confirmed that this latest leak came from info-stealer logs, which are basically collections of usernames and passwords stolen by malware across various websites.
That database, according to Hunt, includes roughly 23 billion records overall, with 16.4 million of those credentials being entirely new entries not seen in previous breaches. So even if you’ve done all the right things before, it’s still worth checking now.
How to check if your Gmail has been leaked
The quickest way to check if your email has been exposed is by visiting Have I Been Pwned (haveibeenpwned.com) and entering your Gmail address. The site, used globally by both individuals and companies, will tell you whether your email appears in any known data breaches.
If it does, don’t panic — but move fast. The first step is to change your password to something strong and unique. Avoid reusing previous passwords or anything you’ve used on other accounts.
Next, “users can protect themselves from credential theft by turning on 2-step verification and adopting passkeys as a stronger and safer alternative to passwords, and resetting passwords when they are found in large batches like this”, Google said in a X thread.
Signs that your email’s been hacked
One clear sign your account’s been hacked is if you suddenly can’t log in or start hearing from friends about suspicious spam sent from your email. In that case, use Google’s recovery tools right away and let your contacts know not to open anything that looks odd.
If you’re anything like me, your Gmail isn’t just an inbox — it’s the key to your whole damn life. So even if you haven’t noticed anything strange, it’s worth spending a few minutes today double-checking that you’re not one of the millions of people whose email ended up in the wrong hands.
This article has been updated on October 28, 2025, 3:45pm to reflect Google’s official response and new information clarifying that there has not been a Gmail-specific security breach, but rather a credential leak stemming from ongoing infostealer malware activity targeting users’ devices — not Google’s own systems.
Lead image: Gmail
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