It's probably worth changing your email password, Hulu is getting into live TV, Windows 10 gets a Vine app, Periscope now saves your streams, and Google's self-driving cars cause mayhem in GTA V.

Your Email Password May Have Leaked

If you have an email account with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, or Mail.ru then you should probably change your password sooner rather than later. This is because hundreds of millions of login details associated with email accounts have been circulating online among digital criminals.

According to Reuters, a company called Hold Security recently obtained a database of 272 million unique email addresses and passwords. The company claims a Russian hacker offered them the database in exchange for (bizarrely) just $1. When Hold Security refused to pay, the hacker handed over the treasure trove for positive coverage on social media sites.

Around 57 million of the email/password combinations are for Mail.ru users, 40 million are for Yahoo Mail, 33 million are for Hotmail, and 24 million are for Gmail. As well as email accounts, there are passwords associated with other websites. Which effectively means no one can be sure their credentials aren't included in this database.

All of the affected email providers have been alerted to the discovery, and all will undoubtedly deal with it in their own way. The same goes for individual users, but we would recommend changing the password to your main email account just to be on the safe side. Especially if you use that same password across multiple websites.

Hulu Is Getting Into Live TV

Cord-cutters in the U.S. have a reason to celebrate, with Hulu announcing plans to start streaming live television in 2017. The Wall Street Journal leaked these plans over the weekend, and Hulu has now confirmed its story.

Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins stated its subscribers would soon have the ability to stream "live programming from broadcast and cable brands," including "live sports, news, and events". Hopkins didn't reveal which networks will be involved or what it will cost, but the WSJ suggested both Disney and Fox have signed on the dotted line.

Hulu won't be the first to offer such a service, but it has bags of experience, a mainstream presence, and several networks financially invested in the company. All of which gives Hulu a clear advantage over the competition. If cable companies' days really are numbered, then Hulu is well-placed to lead the charge into the future.

Vine Lands on Windows 10

Vine is now available on Windows 10, with Twitter's service for posting and watching short videos now residing in the Windows Store. Vine for Windows 10, which is free and works on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8, and Windows Phone 8.1, offers most of the same features available on the existing mobile apps.

You can watch trending videos, explore channels, follow creators, and add your own videos to the service. The Windows 10 version of Vine also adds "Live Tiles, an adaptive UI, and Drag and Drop". You can also pin individual channels to your Start menu, should you love anyone's content to that extent.

Periscope Saves Your Streams

You can now save your Periscope streams forever, and it's as simple as adding a hashtag to the title of your video. By default, Periscope videos get deleted after 24 hours, but including #save in your title will save that video forever.

This is currently part of a public beta which looks set to lead to an all-new version of Periscope with a greater number of options for users. Periscope users using the #save feature on an individual video can still choose to delete that video manually at a later date.

With Katch recently shutting down, this new feature couldn't come at a better time.

Self-Driving Cars Arrive in GTA V

And finally, Google is forging ahead with its plans to have us all sitting in the back of our own cars being driven from A-to-B like some highfalutin fools. But not everyone is sold on the self-driving cars concept, and it will take some serious time and effort to persuade the general public this is a good idea.

This video probably won't help, as it shows one possible scenario once self-driving cars become a reality. That scenario being that self-driving cars will do their own thing, crashing into other vehicles and running pedestrians over as if they're meaningless bags of meat. Which is exactly what humans will be to our new robot overlords.

OK, so this is only Grand Theft Auto V, but GTA isn't that far away from reality, is it? [H/T Kotaku]

Your Views on Today's Tech News

Will you be changing your email password just in case? Are you excited to see Hulu adding live television to its service? Will you be installing the Windows 10 Vine app? Have you ever used Periscope? What's your reaction to the GTA V video featuring Google's self-driving cars?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Tech News Digest is a daily column paring the technology news of the day down into bite-sized chunks that are easy to read and perfect for sharing.

Image Credit: Joe the Goat Farmer via Flickr