If you are a registered user of Yahoo then you will have received an email from Yahoo explaining what happened in the data breach that has been reported on TV and in newspapers this month.  Someone collected a huge amount of information from Yahoo without their knowledge in August 2013 and it was only in December 2016 that Yahoo found out it’s security had been breached.

Yahoo believe the data copied contains name and email address, telephone numbers, date of birth and in some cases hashed passwords and security questions and answers. But does not include any financial information or credit card numbers etc.

Yahoo only found out about this when  asked by Law Enforcement to examine some data that turned out to be from Yahoo and their investigation proved what had happened three years previously.

1. As a Yahoo User What Must I Do?

If you have not changed your Yahoo password recently then do so quickly and make sure to set a safe password [https://fightback.ninja/test/how-to-keep-your-passwords-safe/]. You should also change your security questions.

Check your accounts for any suspicious activities and remember that scammers sometimes only take small amounts for a period of months, hoping to be ignored.

1. What About Other Online Logins and Passwords?

If you have other accounts that use the same login and password as Yahoo then you should change them quickly. Once scammers have your login and password they will check other websites to see if you’ve used the same information.

Ideally you should use different logins and passwords for each website you’re registered with. However, that may be impractical for people with lots of such logins but you should at least use a set of logins and passwords and not the same one for every web site.

Note: If you receive an email or call from someone claiming to work for Yahoo – be suspicious and do not divulge any confidential information even if they seem to have your information already.

Go to http://yahoo.com/security-update for further information from Yahoo.

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