Yahoo! Inc. has just been hit by the single largest data breach ever recorded, and real estate professionals who have an account with the company would be wise to take precautions to secure the recent hack. While there's no way of knowing yet if your account was hacked, over one billion accounts were said to be compromised, which means a huge number of people are at risk.
What's humiliating for Yahoo is that the hack actually took place in August 2013, more than three years ago, yet is only just coming to light now. The unidentified attackers are said to have stolen data including user's names, e-mail address, telephone numbers, dates of births, and passwords, the company said. The data breach is separate too, and twice as large as a 2014 hack that Yahoo had disclosed earlier this year, affected 500 million users.
In response, Yahoo is urging its users to change passwords, security questions, and upgrade security to their accounts immediately. Users should also consider enabling two-step authentication to their Yahoo accounts for an extra level of security. This will send a text message or call the user’s phone with a code as a second verification step.
Further, now is a good time to review your non-Yahoo accounts too. Change passwords and security questions on those accounts that may have similar information that was used to access your Yahoo account.
Also, scrutinize any e-mails you might receive from Yahoo: Phishing e-mails have been reported from crooks who are posing as Yahoo and asking users to click on links. Yahoo says none of its e-mails contain attachments, and the e-mails will not request user’s personal information.
"If an e-mail you receive about these issues prompts you to click on a link, download an attachment, or asks you for information, the e-mail was not sent by Yahoo and may be an attempt to steal your personal information,” the company said. “Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from such suspicious emails.”