[OUCH] One Billion Yahoo Accounts Hacked - Comments Page 1

The Russians did it! LOL

Thank you Bob for this info. I heard about this on a news report but didn't get the concept of just how bad this breach was in terms of access to Yahoo accounts.
I will be busy for a few days changing email accounts on several hundred accounts.

I do use gmail as my main email account and have all other email accounts forwarded to my gmail.

As I often tell internet users, Nothing is totally private or protected in Cyberspace. I also pass on your web site to them and tell them this is where I garner much of my own knowledge about the internet and computers.

Thank you for your continued articles and past articles which have helped demystify the internet and computer programs/operation.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2017 New Year.

I look forward to reading your 2017 articles when they come to my inbox.

Change your password now? I think it is a little late. This hack happened over three years ago. I know Yahoo has forced me to change my password three times over the last three years. Not sure why changing it now helps with the three year old hack. I am more worried about Rule 41.

You got me, John Silberman - what's Rule 41?

Thanks, Bob, for your always invaluable advice. I tried several times to change my Yahoo login but the service wasn't working. Will try again after reading this.

Stephanie, this is why we use Google:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_41

I tried to delete Yahoo account. It is impossible in my case. Every time I go into account I have to change password and get a new account key. I got as far as the Help page. To delete I had to use account key again which they said was invalid. Next step I had to copy about 8 numbers moving in a circle. That's the impossible part. I asked for an audio then they hid numbers in static sounds. I got the numbers and they invalidated my account key again. I gave up.

If you think about it...the chances of someone using your information is slim to none. 1 BILLION to choose from and they go after you. You can buy insurance from me and I will cover any damages. Plus in three years MOST people have changed their passwords. But don't let me stop people from overreacting and going paranoid with fear.

Those asking about rule 41. See Bob's article at http://askbobrankin.com/the_noose_around_privacy_is_tightening.html
Much easier to understand than the Cornell version.

After reading the article, I made several attempts to terminate my Yahoo account, the last one being successful. However, I then discovered that Yahoo will keep the account open for up to 3 months in order to prevent malicious activity [sic, sic and sick].

Don't think bad things can't happen to you. I was notified that my charge card was used to make two purchases at Target.com today, without my consent, totaling close to $1,800. Luckily, I had set myself up for notification to my cell phone for charges without my card being present, so that I was able to nip this in the bud with a call to my credit card people. Now I have to wait for a new card.

The news that the Yahoos did a Trump was not bad for me, since my logon info was unique to Yahoo, so I lost nothing.

I have both Yahoo and Gmail accounts. I haven't yet gotten rid of the horribly slow Yahoo account because there are hundreds of old e-mails on there (such as conversations with my late mother and photos sent to me for my web site) that I want to save. Is there a simple way to either download those or forward them in bulk to computer or my Gmail account? I only know how to send one at a time. Then, I could delete Yahoo which is all junk anyway.

I deleted an account with Yahoo a couple of years ago and received an email indicating my account was breached. I'm trying to determine if it was this account that was supposed to be deleted or some other account and cannot find anyone at Yahoo to get a hold of. Is there an email address or phone number that I can contact Yahoo? I cannot find any phone number or email address and the email didn't give a phone number or email address I can use for further information.

You have a name like "Yahoo", and they don't have competent security people. Now, why am I not surprised?

Thanks, Bob, for your thoughts on Yahoo email. My response, seeing I have a few Yahoo email accounts, is to change the passwords on each account and with a different one on each account, and to change the security questions. While other providers of free email may at this time have a better reputation than Yahoo, it may be that Yahoo will now become much more secure due to that public attention over this debacle.

You mean like they became more security minded after having 500 Million Accounts Hacked? What exactly are you smoking? It is apparently very powerful stuff.

I've had my Yahoo account for 15 years. Yahoo (yes, I have also wondered about the name choice!) used to be more usable. I still like being able to change the background look. Yahoo Groups used to be marvelous...now they have just about died. Like Robyn, I have thousands of emails stored on Yahoo, even though I periodically try to tidy up. And like Mike McLaughlin, I sort of feel like if nothing awful happened in the past three and a half years, it probably won't. However, I guess I will just change my password and keep that Yahoo account for now. With all its faults, I actually like Yahoo just as much or more than my Hotmail, since MSN monkeyed around with Hotmail.

I tried to go to Yahoo and delete my account but I had just put Sticky Pass on and it had added every account ever used on my computer, including my deceased son's Yahoo account. Sticky Pass defaulted to my son's account and even when I would change it to my user name and password, when I clicked the button, Sticky Pass reverted it back to my son's name and then said the password was wrong. In frustration, I got signed into my son's account via having Yahoo send an email with security code to my email address which was the alternate for his account. Used that and figured out the horribly moving numbers and after two tries managed to delete my son's account. However, StickyPass still has his account listed and keeps defaulting to that so I can't sign into my Yahoo to delete it. I am not liking Sticky Pass at all, which I just bought using the special in your newletter. It's too intrusive and I can't make it stop when I don't want to use it. Am in contact with StickyPass to try to resolve this problem, but I've already had to remove it from my Samsung Phone because it was kept making me put in my Master Passord at every new internet page, after I'd already signed in, and then started constantly crashing. Woe is me.

For Robyn ... take a look at Mozilla Thunderbird. It may fit your requirements.

You can download all of your mail from Yahoo to your own computer.

Bob doesn't seem to have an article about it, but my other go to guy, Leo Notenboom does.

https://askleo.com/thunderbird_a_free_open_source_and_powerful_email_client/

Yahoo is hilarious.

I get repeated notices from Yahoo because I'm using "an outdated or less secure sign-in," i.e., Outlook 2016 with an app password.

Yahoo wants me to use its very own secure app for my mail.

I want Yahoo to get its act together.

Neither Yahoo nor I are likely to get what we want.

I have Yahoo's version of 2FA enabled, but I don't much care if the account is hacked. I have two or three advertising newsletters and one Yahoo group mailing that come to my Yahoo address. Indeed, the account does contain the minimum amount of personal information, but the privacy of that information is on the ship that sailed with Anthem, Home Depot, Target, and several other trustworthy--haha--sites that were breached in recent years.

My real mail goes elsewhere. I wouldn't entrust Yahoo with mail I care about if it were the last provider on the planet.

That's why I always recommend using a email client to download all the emails, via POP3/IMAP (for example, using Thunderbird, like Jonathan said) with the setting to download and 'delete from server' all the messages. This applies even if you use Gmail, Outlook or any other service. And about this hack, I think all this it's only a "chess move" to discredit and make the Yahoo brand fail, and when they said that Yahoo had an email monitoring system installed, makes you believe or think Microsoft and Google are pure saints (and that they doesn't have the option to read your emails too). Wake up people, this "hack" or "leak" doesn't change anything for end-users. On the contrary, I think Yahoo made someone "upset" for something we don't know, and is now making the brand/company pay for that. And if you currently use Yahoo and want to close your account, don't desperately go to Gmail or Outlook, use another less known email provider. I don't believe a hack that happened 3 years ago, goes public today without a reason. IMHO, this makes me love Yahoo even more.