A phishing scam that resulted in the public posting of
thousands of Hotmail passwords to a third-party website has now impacted Gmail,
AOL Mail and Yahoo! Mail users as well.
BBC
News reported last week that in addition to the 10,000 Hotmail passwords
made available by phishing scammers on developer website PasteBin, another
20,000 credentials were made available from an amalgam of popular sources.
Google has also made it known that they are aware of yet another list of
passwords that has been leaked, emphasizing that the breach was not an attack
on the firms themselves but a scheme designed to fraudulently obtain personal identity
information directly from the users.
Google has reportedly implemented mandatory password resets
for customers confirmed to be affected, and will continue to do so as they
learn more.
It’s more important than ever to take additional precautions
to verify the identity of any source requesting your personal information.
Phishing scammers are becoming more sophisticated every day, and the fraud may
be less than obvious. Take care of your information by creating complex
passwords for every online account and by educating yourself on the dangers of
phishing and pharming information scams.