AABA Altaba Inc

By Wilson Rothman 

When the U.S. charged Russian spies and their alleged co-conspirators on Wednesday -- claiming they were behind the Yahoo Inc. breach that left more than half a billion accounts exposed -- the Justice Department shared some techniques allegedly used in the act. Based on this, you can determine your risk, and learn ways to minimize your chances of being a hacking victim in the future.

1. Change your passwords regularly

Hackers broke into Yahoo to steal user info. There's nothing that anybody with an ordinary Yahoo account could have done to prevent that. The stolen data allowed the hackers to trick Yahoo's system into thinking they were ordinary users. But the hack only worked with passwords that hadn't changed since the date the information was stolen. (In this case, it was early November 2014.) "The conspirators failed to access those accounts whose users had changed their passwords after" that date, says the Justice Department filing.

So change those passwords regularly, with the help of a password manager. Our pick is Dashlane, but LastPass also gets high marks.

2. Don't fall for phishing

The hackers also employed phishing emails to trick recipients into opening attachments or clicking links, says the Justice Department. WSJ Personal Tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler wrote about the danger of phishing -- and how to stay vigilant against it. The main takeaway: If an email is asking you to log into an account you have, say Verizon or Google, don't click the link inside the email. Instead, go to the account website you already trust and log in. And of course, if the email looks shady, feel free to ignore it.

3. Protect those around you

It's not enough to be careful about your own passwords. If you are a high-value target, then your family and close colleagues may also be targeted. According to the Justice Department filing, hackers "frequently sought unauthorized access to the email accounts of close associates of their intended victims, including spouses and children."

The Yahoo hack is reason enough to practice other key security measures:

-- Use two-factor authentication everywhere, and be wary of account security questions.

-- Delete accounts that you don't use anymore.

-- If you think you've been hacked, there are ways to find out.

For even more information, check out our One-Hour Security Drill.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 15, 2017 16:51 ET (20:51 GMT)

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