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What does he mean by "the accounts were linked"? Does registering for Twitter with a Gmail email qualify as linking? How can a hacker get a password to my Gmail

• indiecore 14y ago
  If the hacker can get your gmail password he can use the reset pass option for every service that you used gmail to sign up with.
  • innguest 14y ago
    Of course, but I'm talking about the opposite way - after all his strongest password was his Gmail password. Some comments here seem to imply that having a strong Gmail password and having a weak Twitter (or whatever) password will somehow make it easier for a hacker to get into your other accounts. It all hangs around that word "linked" that I don't quite understand. But I see from other comments that the story is that the offenders went through Amazon to get someone's Apple password. That makes sense after reading the full story.
    • pyre 14y ago
      His weakest password was on his Apple account, which was his 'backup' email for his Gmail account. That link effectively made his 19 character Gmail password a moot point.
• hmahncke 14y ago
  He means that his gmail account was set up to mail a password reset link to a backup email account, which was in this case his apple mail account. After that, all his other accounts were reset by clicking on "forgot password" or the equivalent, which sent password resets to his apple or gmail account.