Yahoo users close accounts amid fears

September 24, 2016 11:31 pm | Updated November 01, 2016 08:43 pm IST

Security breach:  Several users said they were scrambling to change log-in information.

Security breach: Several users said they were scrambling to change log-in information.

Many Yahoo users rushed on Friday to close their accounts and change passwords as experts warned that the fallout from one of the largest cyber breaches in history could spill beyond the internet company’s services.

After Yahoo disclosed on Thursday that hackers had stolen the encrypted passwords and personal details of more than 500 million accounts in 2014, thousands of users took to social media to express anger that it had taken the company two years to uncover the data breach.Several users said they were closing their accounts.

“We’re probably just going to dump Yahoo altogether,” said Rick Hollister, 56, who owns a private investigation firm in Tallahassee, Florida. “They should have been more on top of this. “Due to the scale of the Yahoo breach, and because users often recycle passwords and security answers across multiple services, cyber security experts warned the impact of the hack could reverberate throughout the internet.

Several users said they were scrambling to change log-in information, not just for Yahoo but for multiple internet accounts with the same passwords. Accounts at banks, retailers and elsewhere could be vulnerable.

“I suppose a hacker could make the connection between my Yahoo and Gmail,” said Scott Braun, 47, who created a Yahoo email when he was setting up a shop on online retailer Etsy. “They both use my first and last name. Not being a hacker, I don’t know what their capabilities are.”

Serious issue That concern was echoed in Washington. “The seriousness of this breach at Yahoo is huge,” Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Thursday. The company plans to brief Warner next week about the attack, his office said.

Yahoo has said that it believes that the breach was perpetrated by a state-sponsored actor.

SY Lee, a former Department of Homeland Security spokesman, said that would be of particular concern to the intelligence community, given the interest state-sponsored hackers have in compromising employees with security clearances.

The FBI had not issued specific guidance to its employees on handling their personal Yahoo accounts, a spokeswoman said.

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