As you have seen recently in the news, Yahoo just announced that about two years ago, their email systems were hacked. Names, email addresses, passwords (with some level of internal encryption), dates of birth, the questions used to establish password resets that users set up (favorite restaurant, father's middle name, etc) were all compromised. Credit card information was not part of this hack. So, how does it effect you? It means that someone other than you has had the potential to get into your email accounts and see, delete, SPAM from, and perform other personal activities with your email.
If you have a Yahoo email address or even a AT&T/Bellsouth email address which is managed by Yahoo and you haven't changed your password within the past two years, do that immediately. If you have another other accounts that use the same password that your email was set to, change those immediately. Password changes will effect every other device where you reference that password. This means your phone, tablet, computer, streaming device, etc will all need to be updated with the new passwords if necessary. Email, especially on iPhones, will need to be updated with both incoming (POP or IMAP) and outgoing (SMTP) password changes.
Do this change directly on the yahoo.com or att.net web mail website. Do NOT respond to an email with a hyperlink to reset your password.
As a general rule, never use the same password for your email as any other account. Keep a list of passwords or use a password management tool like LastPass, Keeper or something similar. Saying "I hate passwords, I can't even remember them" doesn't hold water in today's world. Don't use scratch paper. Keep the list organized. For example, my set up is:
Name: User ID: Password:
Amazon john.doe@internet.com xyzxyzxyzxyz
Delta jane.doe@computers.net 123123123123 and so forth.
If you don't have an email address with Yahoo or AT&T/Bellsouth, it's still prudent to change your password every few years. Hackers are hacking all the time and it's just a matter of time until your data is exposed.
This Public Service Announcement has been sponsored by the good guys at Dunwoody PC. Read more about us here: Computer Wizard to the Rescue!
