Thousands of webmail users warned of hacked accounts

Thousands of webmail users are being advised to change their user names and passwords after it was learned their account details have been stolen by cyber criminals.

At first it was thought to affect only users of Microsoft’s Hotmail service, after the details of more than 20,000 Hotmail accounts were put online.

It has since been learned that the criminals have also compromised the accounts of people who use Google’s Gmail, AOL and Yahoo webmail services.

Google said that “as soon as we learned of the attack, we forced password resets on the affected accounts. We will continue to force password resets on additional accounts when we become aware of them.”

The theft of users’ details link back to a phishing scam where people appeared to have clicked on a link that took them to a page set up by the hackers.

The lists have been removed from Pastebin, a website commonly used by developers to share code. It was temporarily taken offline as the lists were removed.

Users are also being encouraged to change their password recovery questions and update their alternative email addresses.

The stolen accounts could be used in further phishing attacks or to fool people into handing over other personal data that could lead to identity theft.

Like Microsoft, Google said there had been no breach of its security. However it said although it had warned account holders it had learned about, if anyone suspected that their account had been compromised, they should immediately change their password.

Google also said users should confirm that their secondary email address is still valid (both are accessible in the user's Google Account settings). If someone is unable to sign into their account, they can regain access by answering security questions here.

People should also change passwords and user names on other internet accounts that they have to be on the safe side.

It is estimated that around 40 per cent of internet users have the same password and user name for multiple online accounts.