Is your Gmail address affected by a hack? Google will scan the dark web to find out


Google adds a new security feature for Gmail email addresses. You will be able to know if your address is in a hacked database.

Credits: Victoria Heath / Unsplash

User database hacks happen every day. It is possible that your email address is in one of them and that it is available to hackers. The most dangerous is when there is an associated password, which makes your account easily hackable. Google will help you detect these hacks.

Is your Gmail address on the dark web?

It is in a blog post that Google announces a new feature, titled ” dark web report “, literally “Dark web report“. At the moment, she isavailable for most Google accounts in the United States on the Google One site and app.»

“Dark web report” in Google One // Source: Google

Dark web report allows analysis in hacked databases. Google owns and lists them and can get to know if your Gmail address is there. It is a kind of equivalent to the siteHave I Been Pwnedwell known for years. This is not Google’s first tool of its kind: in 2019, the web giant launched a function to see if its passwords had ended up in the wild.

The interest thereafter is to give you instructions on the procedure to follow to resolve this. If your password is present in one of these databases, it is advisable, for example, to modify it on the site or application victim of the hack. The platform also reminds you to vary passwords from one service to another.

“Dark web report” in Google // Source: Google

Google specifies that American users “may search for additional personal information, such as their social security number.At the moment, only Americans have access to this feature, but the company added that more than 20 countries will take advantage of it in the coming months. This only affects personal accounts and not Google Workspace accounts. A priori, the scan will have to be carried out manually: if reminders by email will be made, Google should not automatically notify Gmail users if their address has been hacked.


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