Did Yahoo risk your financial future and retirement by neglecting to even notice the largest personal data loss to date?
The Yahoo team finally let us know that information from “at least” 500 million Yahoo accounts was stolen back in 2014. On top of that, they are pointed at foreign state-sponsored terrorism as the likely source of the hack.
Gee, thanks, Yahoo. Good to know you’ve got our backs.
In all seriousness, more than just your password is on the line here. Your financial security really could be at risk!
You know what the hackers did get?
All your security questions and the answers.
Security experts consider personal security questions and answers to be the keys to your kingdom. People often reuse the same questions (and answers) in multiple areas of their life and your banking and financial accounts are especially vulnerable.
Some of that security information was encrypted, some wasn’t. Yahoo claims that it has “invalidated unencrypted security questions and answers”… But even if your questions aren’t disabled yet, the ONLY option available to you is to turn them off.
What should you do RIGHT NOW?
- Go here to change your password.
- Go here to disable your security questions.
Take a look at this video for more details:
Yahoo discovered this breach while looking into another incident when a hacker claimed to have 200 million account logins for sale.
That’s right, their normal security protocols didn’t catch this gigantic hack. They only found it because they were looking for other credible threats.
So, congrats to Yahoo on the most accounts ever hacked in one fell swoop!
Maybe next time we’ll find out about it in a more timely fashion so we can protect ourselves. Yahoo certainly isn’t protecting us.
Share this information so your friends and family so they can protect their assets, too.