Almost five million password combinations are published, but Google says only 2% would have actually worked.
Millions of Gmail addresses and passwords have been posted to a Russian Bitcoin forum.
Almost five million password combinations were published, however a Google spokesman said there was “no evidence” that its systems had been hacked.
Instead, experts believe the passwords are either old ones obtained through phishing attacks on users, or passwords used on other sites in conjunction with Gmail addresses.
A number of Reddit users said they had found their email addresses in the leak, but that the listed password has never been used in conjunction with Gmail.
A Reddit user named InternetOfficer wrote: “The password that I generally use for other services is shown in this list and not my Gmail password.
“This proves that the hackers hacked into some other service where Gmail address (or other email addresses) are used and got the password of that service not Gmail password.”
On its online security blog, Google said some users have been asked to change their passwords.
A post read: “We found that less than 2% of the username and password combinations might have worked, and our automated anti-hijacking systems would have blocked many of those login attempts.
“We’ve protected the affected accounts and have required those users to reset their passwords.”
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