Posted on 05/06/2016 5:10:50 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The hack affected providers such as Google, Yahoo, Hotmail and Microsoft
Cybersecurity professionals are warning anyone with a personal email account to change their passwords after stolen user names and passwords were being offered up for sale on the Internet, NBC News reported.
Some 272.3 million accounts were stolen - and involve some of the biggest email providers, including Google, Yahoo, Hotmail and Microsoft, according to Alex Holden of Hold Security.
"We know he's a young man in central Russia who collected this information from multiple sources," Holden told NBC News. "We don't know the way he did it or the reason why he did it."
The user names and passwords were all being sold on the so-called “dark web,” where hackers hock their goods. Hackers use the stolen information to lure users into giving away more information, including credit card numbers and bank account access.
Experts say people should change their passwords regularly. Use abstract combinations of letters, numbers and characters that a criminal's computer program couldn't easily guess.
One of our female in laws has had her Yahoo mail acct hacked 3 times that we know of.
Every time, we have received a scam mail saying a friend/relative is in jail, kidnapped or in a hospital, the scammer hacked a Yahoo acct
I changed my pw for gmail. What a hassle. That email account I configured to access my other email account and dl all the messages on it. I checked both after changing my pw, and they seem ok.
The user names and passwords were all being sold on the so-called “dark web,” where hackers hock their goods.
LOL....They answered that $64K question, themselves.
No RSA tokens are needed.
Google has their own authentication app for iPhone or Android.
Apple pushes a code to registered iOS devices.
Yahoo sends a text message to a registered cell phone.
AOL had that for employees YEARS ago! (back when they were the BIG GUY on the block)
Those are used quite a bit in government remote access. They are effective, but annoying.
The only things Hillary has ever sucked are the open end of bourbon bottles.
I guess I will look at some paid service.
I’ve changed all the google accounts I remember having.
One reason I have so many is that I used to do a lot of sub-contract work for Dell. Every contractor crowd that hired me insisted I took the feel good customer service test and none of my previous ones were valid.
Most have little to nothing in them anyway.
https://haveibeenpwned.com/ allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email addresses has been compromised.
Thanks for that link.
I checked and only one that jived with an Avast service. It was Adobe and I never did buy online from them anyway.
We have a digital key at work that you have to use to log in to several of our systems.
How ‘bout Huma?
Who is your service provider?
My password has always been **********.
Seems safe so far.
But then, I’ve noticed other people using ********** also.
Maybe I should change mine.
I know what I’ll do. I’ll reset it backwards. Just hope I can remember it.
Thank you very much for that data breach search link!
RE: “https://haveibeenpwned.com/ allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email addresses has been compromised.”
Lots of luck closing a Gmail account.
I have one that I have not used for maybe more than 5 years.
I entered the user name and password in the site that is supposed to allow one to close an account and was refused.
Then I was asked the most impossible questions one can imagine.
Like: On what date did you last use it.
On what date did you open it.
And this one the ultimate in stupid: What was your first phone number?
Which first? The first one at the parents new house in 1938?
The first one after I got married?
Which marriage?
The first one in my present home?
And it just got worse from there on.
The heck with it.
It would be easier to win any court case that might arise out of someone pretending to be me and writing a hate letter to the president, or whatever, than to deal with google.
Damn google.
Love that movie
We work with a lot of insurance carrier portals on behalf of a lot of docs. All week long we have had to change all the passwords as well as security questions and answers. Getting to be a nightmare just to keep up with them all.
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