Yahoo mail seriously hacked! - ehMac.ca
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Old Jul 12th, 2012, 08:56 PM   #1
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Yahoo mail seriously hacked!

My apologies... this is more than a MAC issue, but I need your good advice, kind folks! :-)

I sit on a committee that is hosting an international conference this October. We send out email notices to some 600 candidates every few weeks. Dozens have registered online. We have been communicating with many others using a Yahoo Mail account. Yesterday, people advised us that they received an email from me, as Event Manager, that I was ...on vacation in Spain, very sick and needed money to come back home... send money, yadda.

We logged into our account and noticed that the SPAM was coming from Nigeria! Immediately we changed our password, which Yahoo says should stop that. BUT all our IN and SENT emails are gone and our complete 600 name database! We can't even email those folks to apologize and tell them what happened.

Yahoo has a reporting procedure for Spam which we've done. I've called their toll free number and they steer us back to Yahoo Help online. Who knows when and how they will reply. I've noticed there have been no new incoming emails. When I try to send ONE new email, it shuts me down due to "suspicious activity on the account".

Any idea how to deal with this? Our database of names must still be out there, I hope!
Is there someway or someone who could access our address book and previous emails?
Is there a way to reach a live person at Yahoo?
This has seriously compromised our event!
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Old Jul 12th, 2012, 10:18 PM   #2
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A couple of thoughts here that sadly are too late for the OP. Perhaps this thread will encourage others to take the needed steps to make sure they are not similarly victimized.

1) Use very robust passwords on any eMail account. Yes it is a pain but the simpler the password the easier the hack.

2) Never ever use the cloud for an important data base. Be sure it is backed up on your main computer, backed up again then printed with copies stored offsite.

Hopefully Yahoo will find a back-up that predates the hack, perhaps at a price. However as you have discovered Yahoo does not exactly encourage communications with its users.

Perhaps someone here has an eMail addy or phone number of someone at Yahoo who can actually help you and who has not been pink slipped.
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Old Jul 12th, 2012, 10:48 PM   #3
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Wow, that's terrible Raven.

I don't suppose your contacts are still in the Yahoo "deleted contacts" list?

Edit = I wonder if it had anything to do with this: Yahoo investigating leak of 450,000 passwords, user IDs - Technology & Science - CBC News

Anyways, judging by the fact that yahoo was susceptible to a simple mysql injection attack, I would recommend switching to gmail when you get the chance.
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Last edited by WestWeb; Jul 12th, 2012 at 11:21 PM.
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Old Jul 13th, 2012, 01:27 AM   #4
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Westweb,
No contact list anywhere!
Tried gmail before, but it's too fussy when you want to send many (legitimate) emails. Too late for that anyway.

How to restore our emails?
How to restore contact list?
How to contact a live person at Yahoo?
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Old Jul 13th, 2012, 07:24 PM   #5
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I got informed today of something going on from my 1Password Twitter page (Agile Blog). They said this:

July 11th, 2012
Yahoo! Voices Website Breached 400,000+ Compromised


It looks like there could be some relevance here to your problem, I don't know, but here is a link you may want to look at regarding the leak...

http://tinyurl.com/7sra33j

Following is Agile's response to what they think has happened regarding security...

Friends don’t let friends reuse passwords | Agile Blog

Somewhere in all that you will see that Yahoo doesn't even encrypt any of the usernames or passwords, etc. It's hard to imagine.
Good luck.
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Old Jul 13th, 2012, 08:12 PM   #6
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Raven, if you were among those using any Yahoo! Voices type accounts, you can do a partial search your your address, it's recommended to not use the full address when searching and see if you're included on the list at:

Yahoo! cleartext passwords

"The data breach only applies to VOICE users. Normal mail users are not affected. …"
Comment post:
Yahoo hacked: Gmail, Hotmail users could be at risk after 400,000 passwords stolen | News | National Post



It seems that a few other user email accounts including Google Inc, AOL Inc and Microsoft Corp services have also been compromised and are advising such users to change their passwords.

"Some logins for Google Inc, AOL Inc and Microsoft Corp services were among those compromised. The three companies said they required affected users to reset passwords for sites including Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN and Live.com."

Yahoo breach puts users of other sites at risk | News | Tech | Toronto Sun
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Old Jul 13th, 2012, 10:00 PM   #7
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I am not clear how it is that Yahoo has Gmail and Hotmail passwords of their users...
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Old Jul 13th, 2012, 11:50 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vancouverdave View Post
I am not clear how it is that Yahoo has Gmail and Hotmail passwords of their users...
I was wondering the same thing and maybe one of the 'net networking gurus will add some logical explanation.

I'm guessing that it's got something to do with some sort of the particular 'net servers and some users accounts sharing and access or something.
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Old Jul 14th, 2012, 07:22 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vancouverdave View Post
I am not clear how it is that Yahoo has Gmail and Hotmail passwords of their users...
Users are often asked to provide a secondary email address (and use Gmail or Hotmail) and use the same password?
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Old Jul 14th, 2012, 07:42 AM   #10
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I am sorry but there are so many things wrong with this scenario as described I don't know where to start.

Actually not true - I do know. The performance you are receiving from the Yahoo mail account is entirely what you should have expected!!!!! Yahoo accounts are notorious for being hacked, sources for spam an phishing attempts of all kinds. They are the worst, most permeable and, next to a hotmail address, have the cheesiest 'optics' in the industry. Want to lower your profile? Use Yahoo!!!!!

You say you are on a committee organizing an "international conference".......... Just how small and insignificant is this conference? Most such endeavours have an identity or their own domain. Why would the committee not contract with any number of legitimate ISPs for email service on that domain at a line item of about $100/annum in the budget. Who the hell advised using Yahoo? and who the hell thought up keeping the only copy of the email list in the mail account itself? I hope the committee hasn't been paying anyone for this advice.
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Last edited by rgray; Jul 14th, 2012 at 08:31 AM.
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