Did You Forget Your Yahoo Password? How to Reset It and Never Forget It Again
No doubt you have heard about Yahoo!, one of the leading web services providers, and you probably even use at least one of its services yourself. The list of Yahoo! products and services is enormous, but we could distinguish the top 3 most popular ones: Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Search, and Yahoo! Answers. According to statistics, the total number of Yahoo! monthly active users reached 1 billion back in 2016. Unfortunately, more recent data is unavailable, but it is very likely that the number passed the 1 billion threshold already. Cybercriminals are well aware of the fact that millions of users use Yahoo! services every day, so it is not surprising at all that they perform attacks on Yahoo! users regularly with the intention of gaining access to their accounts and stealing valuable personal information that could be sold on the black market. Accounts get hacked every day, but, fortunately, it does not mean that users are doomed, and they can do nothing to improve their accounts' security.
Despite the best specialists' efforts to prevent hacks, hackers still manage to achieve their goals, i.e. hack users' accounts. It is hard to forget the massive Yahoo! data breach that took place in 2013. It is considered the largest breach in the history of the Internet! At first, it was believed that only 1 billion users were affected, but it is now known that 3 billion Yahoo! users' accounts were compromised at that time. Unfortunately, Yahoo! found out about the breach only in December 2016, so it was too late to prevent it. According to Marissa Mayer, the former Yahoo! CEO, cybercriminals, potentially, stole users' passwords, telephone numbers, dates of birth, names, email addresses, and even some security questions. It is neither the first, nor the last attack performed against the company.
Yahoo! also reported that it experienced a data breach in 2014. The attack was, most likely, carried out by a state-sponsored actor, according to Yahoo! executives. The exact country was not named, but some experts suspect that it could have been China or Russia behind the hack. Initially, Yahoo! believed it was a small data breach that only involved 30-40 specific users' accounts, but, as it turned out later, hackers managed to obtain data from hundreds of thousands of users.
If you cannot remember what the last time you changed your Yahoo! account's password was, it would be best that you do this today because hackers may have your password in their hands. Specialists working in the cybersecurity department also recommend changing the password ASAP if you suspect that other people know it and can access your account, or you have simply forgotten your old password and found it impossible to get it back. You can find instructions on how to reset Yahoo! password below.
Tip: Have you used the same insecure Yahoo! password across multiple accounts? If this is exactly the case, set a new password for them all ASAP – these accounts can be compromised in case you take no action.
Table of Contents
How to change Yahoo! password (when you can log into your account)
From a browser
- Access the Yahoo Account security page.
- Click Change password.
- Enter a new password of your choice.
- Click Continue.
From a Yahoo! mobile app
- Tap the menu icon to access the menu.
- Tap Manage Accounts (if you use Yahoo Mail app).
- Tap Account info and access Security settings.
- Enter the security code and tap Change password.
- If you have decided to change your password, tap I would rather change my password.
- Enter a new password two times.
- Tap Continue.
Note:If you cannot change your password via the mobile app for any reason, use a web browser on your smartphone.
How to reset Yahoo! password instructions (when your account has been compromised/you have forgotten your password)
- Access the Sign-in Helper.
- Enter an email address or a phone number associated with the account.
- Click Continue.
- Follow the instructions.
Setting a secure password is as important as changing a password for the account that appears to have been compromised. Generally, a strong password can be defined as a password that is difficult for others to figure out, so such passwords as password1 or qwerty are nowhere near secure passwords. If these are bad examples of passwords, what passwords are considered secure? Well, first of all, a good password uses different types of characters, including letters (both lower-case and upper-case), numbers, and symbols. Second, a secure password has to be of a sufficient length. There are different opinions regarding the password length and complexity, but many specialists agree that it should be 14 characters at a minimum. Of course, the best practice is to go up in characters so that the password could not be easily cracked by cybercriminals. Finally but most importantly, passwords cannot be reused across accounts.
How do I generate a secure password and never forget it again? Use a password manager!
It may be quite a challenge to remember a complex password. This is the reason why so many users still set weak passwords and reuse them. It is not that easy to generate a secure password too. Luckily, password managers have been invented. We would highly recommend using a password manager that can be trusted fully, like Cyclonis Password Manager. It will make it possible to generate a complex password of up to 32-characters length with the click of a button. You will not need to write your passwords on a sticky note and keep them in your drawer anymore because a password manager will remember them all for you, even the most complex ones! On top of that, it will enter all saved passwords and logins into a login form in the blink of an eye, which means that you could start using the service quicker. Go ahead, start using a password manager today!
In conclusion, users forget their passwords quite often and get their accounts compromised due to weak passwords they set, not to mention that service providers experience data breaches themselves too. Companies take security measures to protect their users, but you must be more cautious yourself too to ensure the security of your private data. Start by acquiring a reliable password manager and setting a secure password generated with it on all your accounts. Your privacy will thank you.
