Got a Yahoo account? Then you’ve been breached

Remember that 2013 Yahoo breach that supposedly affected one billion accounts? Well, it got worse. Yahoo just announced that all its three billion user accounts have been affected by the hack. This hack exposed things like name, email address, hashed passwords, birthdays, phone numbers, and in some cases, “encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.” What the hackers weren’t able to obtain were the passwords in clear text as well as bank or credit card information linked to Yahoo accounts.

So, if you still use your account or it’s still active, it’s best to start replacing your passwords and security questions (do this also for other accounts that use the same security questions). But be careful, this is also the time scammers take advantage. Phishing emails might look like legitimate emails from Yahoo and ask users to click links. Yahoo reiterates that they won’t do that nor would they require personal information. It might also be time to enable two-step authentication for that extra layer of security.

You can get in touch through help.yahoo.com. They will not ask you to pay for any services so be wary of calls that claim they need you to pay a fee. According to Yahoo, all assistance will be conducted through the site. But also now is time to keep track of any suspicious activities that might happen to your bank accounts and the like.

 Source: The Verge + USA Today