What The Yahoo Hack Can Teach Us
The Problem
By now you’ve undoubtedly heard about the massive hack at Yahoo in which over 500 million account details were stolen back in 2014. The information stolen may have included: names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords and unencrypted security questions and answers.
Unfortunately, many people think, “It’s only my email address, no big deal. I’ll just change my Yahoo password”. NOT SO FAST! Here’s why it matters:
- Your email address is often used for much more than sending messages. Many sites use your email address as your user name. So just by knowing your email address, they have half of the login information they need to get into other sites (i.e. bank, credit card, healthcare provider, etc.)
- Here’s an interesting statistic that relates to the first bullet above. Studies show that over 70% of users reuse passwords to access multiple accounts. So, by stealing your email credentials, crooks have a 70% chance of hacking into your other accounts as well.
- Yahoo allows users to host domains and emails with them (FYI: Google does this as well). The login information for those domains was also stolen. It is estimated that over 572,000 domains are using Yahoo as their email provider. So, there’s a lot more people at risk and that never even realized it.
The Takeaways
- Protect your email credentials like gold because they are just as valuable to hackers.
- NEVER use the same password for multiple accounts. Every account should have a unique password with at least 14 characters composed of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Use a secure Password Manager to keep track of them all.
- Change your passwords periodically.
- Do not keep documents on your PC containing login information.
- Do not send credit card or bank account information via email.
- Backup, backup, backup! Install a Hybrid-cloud Image-based Solution for maximum protection.
Stay abreast of current events and take immediate action when necessary. Remember, criminals don’t wait long to steal your money—you shouldn’t procrastinate to take protective measures.
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