Re: How to secure my yahoo account

["DC O'Dcriscoll & Associates" <dcodriscoll () privacybasics info>]

> > How can you know if your yahoo account password has been cracked in 
> > case the cracker doesn't change it or manipulate any other data 
> > relevant to your account(for instance after reading your mails 
> > marks them as unread,etc)?
>  My suggestion would be to avoid using a Yahoo account for anything 
> that requires security.

Basically any webmail service such as yahoo has the same problem - 
you are trusting them to be secure with out them providing much 
evidence of how they are going about it. Even hushmail, which is 
supposed to over come all the security problems as with traditional 
webmail (encrypted storage and transmission of data) has this issue. 
Unless they completely throw open their software and architecture 
then you are just taking their word for it that they are doing what 
they claim to be doing.

Yahoo and Hotmail both have secure login but they then drop the https 
once you are in which I find irritating. For your situation, ideally 
they would provide some sort of time stamp message, saying something 
along the lines of 'you last logged in at...', but this presumes that 
the cracker has come through the front door.

There are techniques which can reduce the risk but they depend on the 
specific needs of your situation or where you think the threat is 
coming from - it depends on whether you think your yahoo account is 
being randomly accessed by a hacker, or specific targeting of your 
account is occuring.

Donal

--
dcodriscoll () privacybasics info
40 Pinfold Lane, Lancaster, LA1 2BJ
Tel: 01524 63935; Web: www.privacybasics.info
Human oriented training and consultancy in security and privacy

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