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Yahoo! Is asking users of its Mail service to change their passwords following the discovery of a breach which has left user accounts exposed to possible theft.

The company said that it had already changed the passwords on accounts connected to what the company termed a “third party database compromise” which contained data on some of it users. Yahoo! said that the data already appears to be in use for automated attacks which attempt to harvest further information from the compromised accounts.

In addition to resetting account information, Yahoo! said that it would be implementing two-factor authentication and users who have associated a mobile number with their accounts will be asked to enter in a code from an SMS message.

The company said that it had yet to find any evidence that its own systems were compromised by attackers. The company did not name the third-party which had been breached.

“In addition to adopting better password practices by changing your password regularly and using different variations of symbols and characters, users should never use the same password on multiple sites or services,” said Yahoo! senior vice president of platforms and personalization products Jay Rossiter.

“Using the same password on multiple sites or services makes users particularly vulnerable to these types of attacks.”

The disclosure adds Yahoo! to a growing list of major brands which have suffered attacks on user data recently. Retail giants Target and Neiman Marcus have both reported major failures in which point of sale (POS) systems were compromised in order to lift user accounts and payment card details.

Last year, Adobe had to deal with an breach around its systems which left millions of customer accounts vulnerable. ®

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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/31/yahoo_mail_users_change_your_password_now/