Yesterday, Yahoo confirmed claims that 500 million user accounts were stolen as of a 2014. The data that was compromised includes names, emails, passwords, telephone numbers, and the answers to account security questions. If your account is one Yahoo suspects was compromised, you’ll be prompted to enter a new password as soon as you log on. If you use the same password on other accounts, you should change those, too.
How to Minimize Risk
While there is nothing you can do to prevent these breaches, there are a number of best practices that you can use to prevent exposure from these kinds of attacks:
- Pick better passwords: When information gets stolen, the time it takes the hacker to decipher your password is directly proportionate to how common and complex of a password you are using. Avoid common passwords and patterns such as “12345”, “qwerty” or “password” and if you use any actual words in your password, pair them with a few random letters and numbers as well.
- Change Passwords Often: Often times these attacks don’t become clear until well after the data is stolen, but if you change your password often, the stolen information will likely be outdated by the time the hacker tries to exploit it.
- Never Reuse Passwords: Just like changing your password can prevent stolen info from being used against you, reusing old passwords can re-open you to risk from old breaches.
- Update Security Questions: Just like passwords, these can be stolen and used against you as well.
- TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION: Adding a second type of authentication, like a one-time code sent over text message, can greatly secure your online accounts making them hard to get into even if your information gets stolen.
Contact us today to find out more about how to secure your company’s online accounts.
