Yahoo to Issue Alerts About State-Sponsored Attacks

 
Yahoo announced this week that it will alert users it suspects are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers.

"We'll provide these specific notifications so that our users can take appropriate measures to protect their accounts and devices in light of these sophisticated attacks," Bob Lord, Yahoo's chief information security officer, wrote in a blog post.

Yahoo did not specify how it will alert users about these potential threats. Google started issuing them in 2012 via pink bars atop a user's screen. Facebook did so via desktop alerts earlier this year, while Twitter sent warning emails to certain users this month.

"It's important to note that if you receive one of these notifications, it does not necessarily mean that your account has been compromised," Lord wrote. "Rather, we strongly suspect that you may have been a target of an attack, and want to encourage you to take steps to secure your online presence."

Yahoo was also quick to point out that any sort of warning does not mean Yahoo has been hacked. It declined to share details about how it uncovers state-sponsored attacks "to prevent the actors from learning our detection methods."

If you do get an alert, Yahoo offered several protection options: turn on two-step verification; create a strong password; make sure account recovery information, like emails and phone numbers, are up to date; double check your mail forwarding and reply-to settings because hackers could have messed with them; and review your account for activity you don't recognize.

Yahoo also warned people to be on the lookout for phishing attacks and urged them to install antivirus software.

State-sponsored attacks, meanwhile, are those carried out at the behest of a particular state or country. Google, for example, said in 2010 that the Chinese government had targeted the Google accounts of Chinese human rights activists, an incident that strained relations between Beijing and the search giant for years.