This morning, the ever-reliable go-to source for all things Internet on Twitter, @mashable, reported that more than 20,000 Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL passwords had been compromised. To be more specific, the article read, “the login data of over 30,000 Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast and Earthlink accounts have been posted online.” 

Yikes! Where is Chicken Little? The sky is falling!! The result: instant Internet panic. Within minutes, “Yahoo” became the trending topic on Twitter (one instance where the company jumped ahead of the other competitors, and not for a good reason). Even I waited no more than 30 seconds before going and changing the password to my Gmail account. 

Google (Gmail) has spoken frankly on the matter and said to BBC that they “recently became aware of an industry-wide phishing scheme through which hackers gained user credentials for web-based mail accounts including Gmail accounts.” 

Ever the cutting-edge company, Google has already taken immediate action to safeguard the affected accounts by forcing password changes. Spokespeople from Google and Yahoo have already said they recommend that people regularly change their passwords and be aware of phishing scams. 

This is definitely part of the compromise of the Internet era. We trade a level of security for instant access to information and ease of communication and many of us use the same password for multiple web sites to keep us from forgetting our passwords. Shockingly, Yahoo reported that about 40 percent of people that had been hacked, had the same password for every web site they used. There are numerous ways that technology has enhanced our lives and it will continue to do so, but with these enhancements come risks and now fair warning has been issued. I hope people will heed the advice of Google and Yahoo. Safety is something not worth compromising.