A Second Breach – Earlier than the First – Exposed 1 Billion Yahoo Users’ Information

1 Billion.  That’s a great number for net worth, but a terrible number for Yahoo users.  Why?  Because that’s the number of accounts compromised in yet another Yahoo breach.

Just a few months ago, Yahoo announced that a 2014 breach had put half a billion users’ personal information at risk.  This month, Yahoo announced that an earlier breach had occurred in 2013, affecting 1 billion users.

According to Washington Post reporters Craig Timberg and Hayley Tsukayama, “Given the size of the two hacks, many Yahoo users are likely to have had their information stolen more than once.”

Eh, So What?

While Yahoo claims no financial information was compromised, users should not ignore the news.  Hacks like this are after one thing:  personal and identifying information (name, birthday, phone number, passwords, etc.) of the customers.  Customers like you.

Are hackers stealing your information to buy Game of Thrones Blu-Rays on Amazon?  Probably not.  More likely, they’ll sell the information on the “dark web” to individuals or groups who will try to access your bank account or credit cards.

That should get your attention.  Any Yahoo user with an account dating back to 2013 needs to know the risk.  Even the most innocuous of personal details has a $ value to someone.  

Practice Safe Security

Yahoo has suggested users protect themselves, by changing their passwords and security questions/answers. All good advice, but it does nothing to prevent a breach that already occurred.

Don’t become part of the next billion users affected.  We suggest (as does Germany’s cybersecurity authority, the BSI), you use an email service “…for whom security is not a foreign concept.”

To Yahoo or Not to Yahoo?

To change your Yahoo password, click here to enter your Yahoo Account and click Account Security > Change Password.

For those users that want to migrate their mail to another provider and delete their Yahoo account for good, ZDNet provides some simple steps.

Yahoo December 2016 Breach by the numbers:

• 1 Billion – Number of users affected in 2013 hack (revealed December 2016)
• 500 million – Number of users affect in 2014 hack (revealed September 2016)
• 2 – Number of years before Yahoo alerted users of 2014 breach
• 6.11 – Percentage Yahoo stocks fell this month