183 Million Email Addresses Leaked: Google Denies Gmail Hack

.security
31.10.'25 09:58
2 min

Jens Jonkers

183 Million Email Addresses Leaked: Google Denies Gmail Hack

Google emphasizes that no hack has occurred on Gmail, following reports of 183 million leaked accounts.

Google strongly defends itself against reports of a hack on its email service Gmail. These reports stem from a blog by Troy Hunt, the creator of the free internet service Have I Been Pwned? which allows you to check if your account details have been exposed in data breaches. Hunt announced on October 22 that he had added 183 million email addresses to his database.

These were mainly ‘recycled’ credentials that have been circulating on the internet for some time. Hunt investigated the data and concluded that 92 percent came from older databases. This means that eight percent, or approximately 16 million email addresses from the list, had never been leaked before. Some email addresses could also be linked to passwords.

Google: “No Hack on Gmail”

Hunt’s blog quickly caused concerns that Gmail had been hacked. Google firmly denies this. “We want to reassure our users that Gmail’s security is strong and effective. Claims about a major security issue in Gmail are completely incorrect. Our security measures block more than 99.9 percent of phishing and malware attempts, preventing them from reaching users,” Google responds.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to err on the side of caution. Through Have I Been Pwned, you can quickly check if your (Gmail) account details might have been leaked, either now or in an older data breach. If that’s the case, change your password immediately, especially if you reuse it for other accounts, which is never recommended.

Google further advises enabling MFA and/or passkeys for Gmail. This way, no one can access your account without confirmation from another device. Passkeys are intended to make passwords obsolete eventually, but the rollout and adoption are proceeding slower than planned.