Yahoo breach – this is what you need to know and do

It’s been revealed that Yahoo have suffered the biggest data breach in history, with over 1 billion of their accounts compromised. This is what you need to know.

Yahoo have not had a good 2016. In September, it was revealed that 500 million accounts had been potentially compromised after a breach that occurred in 2014. And now an even bigger breach has been revealed, that actually occurred back in 2013, where 1 BILLION accounts have been compromised.

Yes. 1 billion. The majority of their entire user base. And the information that has been compromised includes names, emails, passwords (in encrypted form) and even your phone number (if you gave it to Yahoo.)

It may be easy to dismiss this news as unimportant, since the breach occurred in 2013, and you’ve probably changed your Yahoo password since then any way. However, this is not the case.

We’re assuming that you’ve changed your Yahoo password already. In fact Yahoo may have forced you to by now. If you haven’t changed it for a few years, it’s vital you do that straight away.

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But there are other concerns that come with such a large-scale breach.

1. Your email and name are out there. A number of cyber-criminals may now know your name and your email and that you have a Yahoo account. So the possibility of an array of targeted scams may soon be hitting your email inbox. This may include phishing scams that include your name, asking you to click a link inside the email that will lead to spoof webpages intent on stealing your login information for various websites, or may lead to webpages that will try and trick you into installing malware.

In fact the emails may even pretend to be from Yahoo and ask you to “reset” your password by clicking a link that leads to a spoof webpage and then asking you to enter your existing login information, which are then stolen.

2. Criminals will use your email and password combination on other sites. After data breaches like this, there are always reports that criminals will try and use your email and password combination on other websites to see if you use the same information. So if you use the same information on multiple sites, which you shouldn’t, change those passwords immediately.

3. Make sure your social media privacy settings are LOCKED DOWN! With your name and email to hand, identity thieves may also attempt to glean your social media profiles for other information about you, in order to steal your identity. No matter how innocuous the information may seem, any personal information about you can be invaluable to criminals.

 

Remember, follow basic security precautions…

Massive data breaches like this can and do occur, and it is important that you employ some basic security measures to limit the potential damage that they can cause you.

This includes –

– Enabling two-factor authentication whenever possible, to prevent your password being the only thing needed to access your account.
– Don’t use the same passwords across multiple sites, especially if you’re registering with the same email address.
– Use strong passwords that include lowercase and uppercase letters, along with numbers and symbols.
– If employing a “secret question”, make sure the answer isn’t readily available on your social media profiles or elsewhere.