Yahoo! Security Breach
Like a 6th of the world’s population, you may have received an email (or even heard on the news) that there has been a security breach in Yahoo’s system – what follows should be all you need to know.
What has Happened?
“Yahoo badly screwed up” – Bruce Schneier, a cryptologist and one of the world’s most respected security experts.
It is important to note that it is only believed to be Yahoo’s servers that have been infiltrated. If you currently use Fellowship to host your website, you will know we take security very seriously – we hope to have answered any questions you are likely to have below.
Right, who was affected?
The short answer is, a lot of people. If you have a Yahoo account, you should assume that you have been affected.
Yahoo have confirmed that over a billion accounts have been compromised, making this the largest breach in the history of the internet. If you have a Yahoo account, or have ever had a Yahoo account, there is a good chance that your information may have been compromised. Our advice is to assume that information has been compromised and act accordingly, even if you haven’t received an email from Yahoo.
So, what has and hasn’t been stolen?
Yahoo have not stated clearly yet what exactly has been taken, although they have said that they do not believe the system they use to store Payment and Bank information has been infiltrated. This is likely to be the only silver lining you will find in the story!
It is very likely that email addresses, passwords, addresses, phone numbers and other contact information have been stolen. With this information, hackers could log into your Yahoo account and access anything you can access on Yahoo. This means all of the emails you have ever sent or received and all of your Yahoo search history.
Ok, what should we do now?
It is vitally important that you change any passwords that are the same or similar to the one you used on Yahoo, including your Yahoo password. You will need to come up with different and distinct passwords for each of your accounts (don’t just add a 1 on the end!). Sharing passwords between accounts is also a bad idea – you may find it useful to use a password manager.
Finally, for good measure, it would be a good idea to change the passwords of any accounts that use your Yahoo email address.
We hope you have found this helpful (and not too scary!) – if you need any help changing the password for your website admin area, please contact Matt and he will be happy to help you.