PSA: Check to see if your email password was leaked
Earlier today, almost half a million passwords to email accounts were leaked by a hacking collective known as D33Ds. This massive security breach is Yahoo’s fault, due to inadequate security in some of its servers, but Yahoo accounts aren’t the only ones affected: this also affects users of Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, Comcast, and MSN.
Yahoo claims that only 5% of the passwords that were leaked were actually current and valid, but that still leaves tens of thousands of people exposed to hackers and other fraud. Luckily, security firm Sucuri has put together an online tool where you can easily check to see if your email is safe.
I recently checked all of my personal accounts, and luckily I’m in the clear. But you should definitely still take 60 seconds and check your own accounts. Just click here to go directly to the tool.
In any case, this definitely highlights the need to change your passwords every once in a while, and to make sure you’re not using the same passwords for multiple sites and services. Especially with the prevalence of multiple services tying into your email accounts, the need to keep your email secure is more important than ever.
[Gizmodo]
