WEB DESK: After years of embarrassing Gmail usernames, you finally have a chance to have it changed to a new one with a new Google feature.
The search engine giant has finally rolled out a much-awaited feature, allowing users to change their @gmail.com address.
Earlier, Google had prevented users with a “@gmail.com” address from changing their account email.
However, with the latest update, the Gmail address can be changed with details “gradually rolling out,” which have appeared on the same Google support page.
Google is gradually rolling out functionality that allows users to change the @gmail.com address associated with their Google Account to a new @gmail.com address.
According to Google, this email address is what users use to sign in to services and helps with account identification. Although the company hasn’t provided further details on this feature, it states that the change is becoming available to all users.
183 Million Passwords Leak, Gmail Users Urged to Check Accounts
Earlier, a massive dataset containing 183 million email and password pairs surfaced online, prompting fresh warnings for Gmail users and anyone who reuses credentials.
The trove, totaling 3.5 terabytes, was added to ‘Have I Been Pwned’ (HIBP) and includes website URLs, email addresses, and passwords collected from “infostealer” malware and credential stuffing lists.
Security researcher Troy Hunt, who runs HIBP, said the logs were amassed across nearly a year from criminal marketplaces and Telegram channels.
The cache also includes Outlook, Yahoo and other providers, Gmail features heavily because of its global scale.
Importantly, experts stress this is not a direct hack of Gmail, but a mass harvest of credentials from infected devices and past breaches.
Google said there is no new Gmail specific attack.
The company uses layered defenses and triggers password resets when it detects credential theft.
They recommend enabling two step verification and adopting passkeys, which replace passwords with device based cryptographic login.
Infostealer malware quietly scrapes everything a victim types or saves in the browser including emails, cloud services, shopping accounts.
Then the data is recycled for years. Attackers test these username password pairs across many sites (“credential stuffing”), turning one exposure into many compromises.
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