Days after it came into light that around up to 5 million Gmail usernames and their corresponding passwords were published on a Russian Bitcoin forum, WordPress.com has stepped forward to secure thousands of its own accounts.
As part of a precautionary measure, Automattic, which operates hosted blogging service WordPress.com, has reset 100,000 user accounts which use a similar password as that found on the associated Gmail addresses list.
The latest move from the content management giant comes after a number of emails on the leaked Gmail addresses list matched email addresses used by WordPress.com bloggers.
Automattic’s Daryl Houston said the pre-emptive measures have been taken to protect users after a number of emails on the list matched email addresses associated with WordPress.com accounts.
Read More: Gmail password leak: Check if your account is on the list
Houston said everyone affected by the password reset has been sent email notifications containing instructions on how they can regain access to their accounts.
Affected ones were asked to hit the Login button on the homepage and make a request for a new password.
Houston added that nearly 600,000 email addresses were discovered on the Gmail list that matched WordPress accounts, but as these users were not immediately vulnerable, so the company decided not to reset their passwords or send emails. The company will however be enabling a notification in their dashboards so that they can assess the security of their passwords at their leisure and with all of this information in hand, he said.
Furthermore, Houston has urged users to use two-step verification to add an extra layer of security to their online accounts.
