Gmail users hit by phishing chat attack

It's been a bad 24 hours for Google's Gmail.

First there was Tuesday's outage that left both businesses and individuals with no access to emails for a number of hours. Now IT security firm Sophos is warning Gmail users about phishing attacks targeting them, and being spread via the Google Chat system.

Samples intercepted by SophosLabs revealed that Google Chat users were receiving unsolicited instant messages, urging them to "check out this video" by clicking on a link via the TinyURL service.

However, the link actually directed users to a website called ViddyHo, where users were asked to enter their Gmail usernames and passwords.

Sophos has warned that hackers could then use this information to break into accounts and steal information to commit identity theft.