Arizonans are being urged to take action to avoid identity theft after Yahoo announced a major data breach affecting one billion user accounts.
The stolen Yahoo user account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, encrypted passwords, and encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. Yahoo indicates the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information.
Consumers affected should immediately take the following steps to avoid becoming a victim of ID theft:
•Review all of your online accounts for suspicious activity.
•Change all of your passwords and security questions and answers for any online accounts.
•Use strong passwords. A password should be at least 6 characters long, unique to each account, and contain upper and lower case letters, symbols, and numbers.
•Avoid clicking links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails.
•Be cautious of unsolicited emails asking for personal information.
•Sign up for two-step email verification which requires a password and another step to verify your identity.