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Uh-oh. Yahoo announced that a billion user accounts have been breached. This news comes not long after a separate breach – disclosed in September – affecting 500 million user accounts.
According to forensic experts, in August 2013 an unauthorized third party stole the data from 1 billion users, including names, emails, phone numbers, birthdates, hashed passwords and even, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
Yahoo has not yet been able to identify the intruder to the theft.
However, the “experts have identified user accounts for which they believe forged cookies were taken or used. Yahoo is notifying the affected account holders, and has invalidated the forged cookies.”
So far, the investigation indicates that no payment card data or bank account information was stolen. Still, an email account can be all cybercriminals need.
When a thief has your email password, he or she can access a wide variety of information you store or have access to therein. And if you happen to use that password for other accounts, thieves can access nearly anything. Before long, your identity can be pieced together by a cybercriminal and possibly used to steal your identity, access financial accounts and more.
And the worst part? You may not know for years the damage done to your identity.
Enrolling in an identity theft protection like LifeLock can help protect your identity going forward. Protection from LifeLock will give you peace of mind and let you rest easy.
Yahoo offers these tips for account holders following the breach of 1 billion users
- Change your passwords and security questions and answers for any other accounts on which you used the same or similar information used for your Yahoo account. Do not use the same password for multiple accounts — especially those containing sensitive information like your bank and social media accounts.
- Review all of your accounts for suspicious activity.
- Be cautious of any solicited phishing 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.
- Delete email and other accounts you no longer need.
The company also recommends using Yahoo Account Key, an authentication tool that eliminates the need for a password altogether.
In addition to these steps, LifeLock will give you the peace of mind going forward. Enroll in LifeLock today.
