The Yahoo servers were hacked in 2014 and personal details of more than 500 million users were stolen. The worst part is, Yahoo didn’t even know about this hacking incident. It was just sifting through another pile of data it had come across in one of the hackers forums and it was then that it was realized that the Yahoo servers were hacked in 2014 and data of 500 million Yahoo users was stolen. People are so pissed that Yahoo is being sued for gross negligence and putting its users personal and financial safety at great risk.
After every major hacking users are advised to change their passwords and the same is the case with the Yahoo hacking of 2014. If it isn’t already too late, you should head to your Yahoo account and change your password immediately. But this is just a good beginning. Is it enough just to change your Yahoo password? No, says this Trend Micro update.
It is not enough to just change your Yahoo password. There is something that Yahoo hasn’t communicated to its users: you also have to unlink/delink all your mobile devices from where you access your Yahoo account and then link them back using the new password.
When you use your mobile phone or your tablet to connect to any Internet account such as Yahoo, MSN or Google, your mobile device uses a unique password to keep connected to that account. This password or ID is different from the password associated with your account. When you set up your account on your mobile phone for the first time, this unique ID is generated by using your original password. After that, even if you change your original password, you can keep on accessing your account using your mobile phone or tablet without having to switch to the new password.
So if one of those hackers started accessing your account on his or her mobile phone or tablet, he or she is still able to access your account even after you have changed your Yahoo password.
You can either login to your Yahoo account and from there unlink all your mobile devices such as your mobile phone or your tablet or you can unlink from your device itself. After unlinking, if you log in again using the new password, your mobile device would be linked again with a unique ID or password, and the next time you change your Yahoo password, you will also again have to follow the same procedure.
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