The theft of data by hackers has become commonplace. And the magnitude of some of these security breaches is astounding. The most recent example came to light last week, when Yahoo announced that back in 2013, hackers stole data of more than one billion users. The announcement came on the heels of a similar admission by Yahoo that another cyberattack compromised data from 500 million accounts in 2014. The latest attack has prompted the Arizona Attorney General to issue a consumer alert.
For those of you who may utilize Yahoo, either for email, advertising, or even for non-Yahoo branded sites such as Flickr and Tumblr (both owned by Yahoo), the effect of the data breaches could be significant. Experts suggest that you should assume your personal information was stolen, and take the following steps to protect your identity:
- Change your password. When you do so, make sure that you do not use the same password across multiple sites. But note that changing your password is not, in and of itself, sufficient protection.
- Create a stronger password. You can do this yourself, or use a password manager such as iPassword or LastPass. They create unique passwords for each site, and that makes it harder for a hacker to decode. If you do it yourself, create long passwords, adding in numbers and special characters.
- Additional security features. Some sites offer security features such as secondary authentication. One example is receipt of a one-time code after you log in. It requires that you enter the code (received, for example, by text), before access will be granted.
Don’t be lulled into a false sense of comfort by “security questions.” Because personal information is so readily available on the internet, the answers to questions such as “What is your mother’s maiden name?” are not hard to find. For example, Google researchers found that they had a good chance of guessing which city you were born in, your favorite food, and similar questions.
Finally, one of the questions often asked is how you can stop your information from being stolen in the first place. The answer is not encouraging. You can decrease the risk of harm by monitoring your financial information often and regularly, by following the suggestions above. But the risk of losing the information to hackers is largely a function of how well the company that stores your information actually secures it.
Law Offices of David A. Black
40 North Central Avenue #1850
Phoenix, AZ 85004
(480) 280-8028