Yahoo account hacked? advice please

Tixy

Hi,
Hoping for some advice relating to my yahoo online mail account please. Hope this is the right place to ask.

A few friends have reported being sent spam/malware emails from my yahoo email address. I intended to go into yahoo to change the password assuming this might stop them. However when I go to log into yahoo today a pop up warning is appearing saying the website has security certificate errors.

So my questions are:

-Is is okay to proceed to my yahoo mail account with these certificate errors? (entering my log-in and password)?

-Will changing my password stop these emails being sent out to my contacts?

-Do I need to worry about anything else with my email account? If it has been hacked presumably my emails will have been accessed? I don't think it has anything very 'interesting' etc on it though I do have things like notifications from my bank, credit card just to say log in to read new statements etc.

-How might it have been hacked? anything I can do to stop it happening in future?

JayCal_2

Change the password to something very secure.

Make sure that the PC you are using does not have a virus.

In your yahoo preferences make sure that you do not have another email address listed as the master account.

Probably best to email Yahoo support to see if they can help.

If it has been hacked then a crime has been committed. Let the police know.

fwor

Not much consolation, but this has seems to have been happening a lot to Yahoo email users recently.

One further question: are you sure your PC is fully up to date via Windows Update? A while back there was a new set of trusted root certificates issued, and without those, some perfectly valid digital certificates may ~appear~ to be invalid.

Tixy

Yep that log in link gives the same message to me Node.

Browser is IE 8.
I know this is going to sound stupid but I can't see the certificate error name - all I get is a yellow bar at the top of the page "to protect your security IE has blocked this website from displaying content with security certificate errors". It doesn't say anything like its an expired certificate or from an untrusted source or anything.

Then on the screen I get the usual log in to yahoo at the right hand side but instead of the usual font and colouring etc it shows it in very simple style - like safe mode style of writing iykwim.
The rest of the page is blank.

If I click on the yellow warning bar at the top I get the options
Display blocked content
What's the risk?
Information Bar Help

Both the bottom 2 just take me to IE help and don't say anything about the error, the top option I haven't tried.

I haven't put in my password or made the changes JayCal suggests as I'm not sure about the log-in page.

Tixy

Fwor - its a work PC I am on today. I would assume it has the most recent Windows Update, but how can I check?

PS I am on windows 7 if thats relevant (and still only just finding my way round some of it).

davb

I would run some scans to check you are not being redirected to a fake site:
Download MalwareBytes and install/update/scan/fix what it finds, and then post the log here.
Also run a hijackthis scan to be sure, and post the log here - don't fix anything, as most of the stuff will be genuine.

Tixy

Thanks

On Firefox I get no error message - do you think that means its safe to log in through firefox? Shall I use the link above, the link from the yahoo or main page or won't it make any difference?

I'd be fairly certain that this computer is virus free as work have very good virus software /detection etc in place.

Tixy

Thanks for all the help.

Okay I've been in and changed my password - there is still no alternative email address set up (I've never set one up in the past). Password still shows it has to be recovered using security questions.

In my sent items there is no evidence of any messages being sent.

But in the spam box there are some mailer daemon messages from the last couple of days which are obviously bounced spam that has been refused by the recipients.

If I keep an eye out and no more bounce messages appear over the next few days then presumably my account is now okay?

Anything else I need to do? how might they have hacked the account in the first place? how can I stop it happening again?
I tend to access my account on 3 PCs all with anti-virus software and none with any reports of viruses. I do also access it on my smart phone sometimes - and tend to leave it logged in on there - might this have been this problem?

free4440273

Anything else I need to do? how might they have hacked the account in the first place? how can I stop it happening again?

^weak password is often a culprit/


myself. i have several yahoo accounts going many (10 plus yrs in one ) yrs and never have they been hacked/

morganedge

Same thing happened to my yahoo account the other day.
I guess its due to a weak password.
I've since changed the password to one with LOADS of numbers and stuff at the end.
No problems since (that i'm aware of!)
AVG is always running on my PC so hopefull it'd tell me if i'd been compromised??

free4440273

I do also access it on my smart phone sometimes - and tend to leave it logged in on there - might this have been this problem?

^ could potentially be an issue yes/ i tend to do read/send / do what i have to and then immediately log out/ also, i do not allow the browser to save my yahoo account username/password settings /