Yahoo's was the biggest data breach yet
TOBY SHAPSHAK: Be paranoid. Very paranoid
The recent spate of website hackings is a reminder that you need to protect your online security more than ever
All 3bn of Yahoo’s e-mail and other accounts were hacked in 2013, the search giant revealed last week, triple the previously stated 1bn, making it the biggest data breach yet. This followed the hack of US credit agency Equifax last month, exposing the personal details of 145.5m Americans, including credit card details and social security numbers. It confirms just how dangerous having all of our details in digital format can be.Until now, the biggest hack was directed at retailer Target, which paid a US$18.5m settlement in May to 47 US states where 40m customers were affected in 2013. If you weren’t worried about your privacy online, you should be. Hackers are the new cat burglars, the new Pink Panther thieves, and the responses from hacked institutions appear as if orchestrated by the klutz Inspector Clouseau. In many cases, the hacked firms didn’t own up to the breach themselves. Security researchers and sites such as Haveibeenpwned.com fortunately publish such findings. SA’s bigge...
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