Particle.news
Download on the App Store

183 Million Email Passwords Exposed in 3.5TB Stealer Logs, Not a Gmail Breach

Researchers attribute the cache to infostealer malware on infected devices rather than any compromise of Google's email systems.

Overview

  • Troy Hunt added the trove to Have I Been Pwned, allowing anyone to check if their email appears in the newly indexed dataset.
  • Synthient says the logs were aggregated over about a year from criminal marketplaces and Telegram channels and submitted for analysis in October.
  • The dataset includes roughly 183 million unique email–password pairs with about 16.4 million addresses not seen in prior breaches while about 91% match earlier exposures.
  • Google says it resets passwords when it detects credential theft and urges users to enable 2‑step verification or passkeys to reduce account‑takeover risk.
  • Security experts warn of active credential‑stuffing attacks and recommend changing passwords now, avoiding reuse, and using a trusted password manager instead of browser storage.