Yahoo on their official blog page disclosed a security attack on Yahoo Mail. However, immediate action has been taken by Yahoo to secure its accounts and protect the users.
A list of usernames and passwords were used to execute the hack attack. These usernames and passwords were obtained from a third-party database compromise. Yahoo’s own servers were not hacked. ‘Our ongoing investigation shows that malicious computer software used the list of usernames and passwords to access Yahoo Mail accounts. The information sought in the attack seems to be names and email addresses from the affected accounts’ most recent sent mail’, says Yahoo on its blog.
Yahoo is doing eveything it can to secure the accounts. Users are prompted to reset passwords and may receive email notification or SMS alert as second sign-in verification. So if you find Yahoo asking you to change your password and undergo verification, then probably your account too was compromised. Yahoo is also working with federal law enforcement to catch and prosecute the perpetrators. Additional measures to secure Yahoo accounts have been implemented.
Techlomedia suggests you to follow the following guidelines in order to make your account secure:
- Change your passwords regularly.
- Use strong passwords. Use special characters like ‘_’, ‘$’, ‘@’, ‘#’ , numbers (0,1, 2 … 9) and white space to make passwords strong. Here is a list of passwords that Techlomedia suggests you to avoid (25 Worst passowords of 2013)
- Never use the same password on multiple sites or services. It makes users vulnerable to cyber attacks.
- Do not divulge your password to anyone. Password is meant to be kept secret.
Read the blog post of Yahoo on this security attack here.
