Yahoo has confirmed nearly 500 million users’ data has been stolen…
A recent investigation by Yahoo has confirmed that nearly 500 million user accounts, and additional data about them was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014. The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, date of birth, and hashed passwords, encrypted with bcrypt. In some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers were also stolen.
What does this mean to someone who has or had a Yahoo account? It simply means your Yahoo email address and other information may be floating around on the Internet. It also means that if you still have a Yahoo account, such as Yahoo Instant Messenger or Yahoo Email, that you should change your password as soon as possible. Additionally, if you have used the same password for other accounts, such as Gmail or Facebook, you should change those, too.
While you are making changes to your account settings, consider changing your password reset questions, and enabling two factor authentication.
While the investigation currently suggests that no payment card data or bank account information was stolen, it is advised to change the login passwords for those other accounts which may be tied to your Yahoo account. Identity theft and credential theft is a common crime amongst hackers, and the best way to help defeat it, is by changing your account credentials.
