Yahoo confirms Security Breach; Over 500m Accounts Were Hacked
Over 500 million Yahoo accounts hacked – Change your Password NOW
Better safe than sorry
Yahoo confirmed on Thursday that its network was hacked in 2014. The hackers swiped personal information associated with at least half billion Yahoo accounts. That is a whole lot. It is even being said that this just might be the biggest data hack in history.
There is an ongoing investigation and Yahoo claims the security breach was perpetuated by a state-sponsored actor.
Yahoo reported that the account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The hack however did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information.
Yahoo will be notifying users who they think have been affected.
All users are however encouraged to change their passwords especially if you have not changed your password since 2014. Not only passwords but you need to also change your security questions. This is because Yahoo has invalidated unencrypted security questions and answers so that outsiders cannot use it to access your account.
When you log in to your Yahoo account you should get the Security notice, which will ask you to change your account security information. So when you do get this notice please do not ignore like I did. So I’m going to go back now and change my account security information.
If you use the same password and security information for other accounts then please by all means change it.