Help Please ( yahoo hacked )

Tetsy said:

As the title says , someone has hacked into my yahoo mail and is sending spam emails to my contacts, my friend told me he received 1 and they have sent it to some other contacts.I have changed my password but is that enough ?,i have my firewall on all the time , do i need to run any antivirus software ( but people say macs don't need it ).
Any advice would be much appreciated because this is a big worry.
or is my mac hacked ( how would i find this out ).
many thanks

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Having your email account hacked or spoofed has nothing to do with malware on your computer. It can happen even if you don't own a computer. Change your email passwords to something long and complex, with special characters, numbers and upper and lower case letters.

Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 10 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below).

3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.

Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.

Tetsy said:

As the title says , someone has hacked into my yahoo mail and is sending spam emails to my contacts, my friend told me he received 1 and they have sent it to some other contacts.I have changed my password but is that enough ?,i have my firewall on all the time , do i need to run any antivirus software ( but people say macs don't need it ).
Any advice would be much appreciated because this is a big worry.
or is my mac hacked ( how would i find this out ).
many thanks

Click to expand...

Yahoo is notorious for having their accounts hacked. Changing your password is the foremost thing you need to do and need to ensure it's a strong password. The problem isn't on your end, at your network or computer. The problem is on Yahoo's side, in their servers and their ability to secure them.

I personally recommend changing email providers to someone not Yahoo.

Just a reminder to use different passwords at each site you visit. It is easy for an email-based-login/pwd combo to be taken from a shopping site and re-tried at the email site. There are many apps that can produce and/or track these, 1password among them.

gmail has a nice, optional two-step authentication process for logging in.

I highly recommend 1password (some consider it pricey, I consider it a small price to pay for not having to track a ton of log-ins). I use the dropbox sync feature across all my devices so that I've always got the latest password list with me.

Tetsy said:

Thank you all for all your replies , i guess i will stop using yahoo mail ( what do you guys use ? ) , i will change all my passwords.
Do you recommend i purchase the 1password app or not ?

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I use Gmail and I also recommend the LastPass password manager which integrates into your browser of choice (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, IE et. al) and works on your OS of choice as well (OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android). LastPass is endorsed by security expert Steve Gibson and several websites.

Tetsy said:

Is there much difference between last pass and 1password or is it just personal preference ?. Gmail looks ok so thanks.But why is yahoo mail ( or it seems to be ) hacked more than other email providers ? .
Thanks

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As for the password managers, it's personal preference. 1password is a very good manager as well.

Here is an article on the Yahoo security issue.

Yahoo Mail users still seeing accounts hacked via XSS exploit amid reports Yahoo failed to fix old flaw (Update: Fixed)

Tetsy said:

After reading that its goodbye yahoo,but its a shame.These hackers need to get out more and stop messing up our life's.
Thanks again

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Agreed, that would be nice, but we know it's never going to happen. It never fails that I receive a spam email from a Yahoo account at least once or twice a week.