After Hack, Yahoo! Offers Online Security Tips

By now, most everyone has heard about the 500 million stolen accounts from Yahoo!’s network in late 2014. If you had an account with them, your name, email address, telephone number, birth date, passwords and security questions were probably all compromised.

Yahoo! has even created a page to answer many of the frequently asked questions about the security breach. Click here to access it.

So far as they know, the hack did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information. According to Bob Lord, CISO of Yahoo!, the company is taking the following actions to protect the online security of  their past and current users:

• We are notifying potentially affected users. The content of the email Yahoo! is sending to those users will be available at  https://yahoo.com/security-notice-content beginning at 11:30 am (PDT).
• We are asking potentially affected users to promptly change their passwords and adopt alternate means of account verification. (No matter what online account you have, e-commerce or not, you should change the password at least every six months).
• We invalidated unencrypted security questions and answers so they cannot be used to access an account.
• We are recommending that all users who haven’t changed their passwords since 2014 do so.
• We continue to enhance our systems that detect and prevent unauthorized access to user accounts.
• We are working closely with law enforcement on this matter.

Yahoo! also encourages their users to follow these security recommendations:

• Change your password and online security questions and answers for any other accounts on which you used the same or similar information used for your Yahoo! account.
• Review your accounts for suspicious activity.
• Be cautious of any unsolicited communications that ask for your personal information or refer you to a web page asking for personal information.
• Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails.

Additionally, Yahoo! offers a Yahoo! Account Key, a simple authentication tool that eliminates the need to use a password altogether. The key can be used through an online browser, and any Android or Apple mobile device.