Every time I receive an email that's obviously from a hacked address, it's a Yahoo account. Occasionally AOL, but but almost always Yahoo. I'm surprised they're still so widely used.

Interesting. Remember when the spammers were largely Hotmail?

Yahoo actually has some good things-- FreeCycle forums and many moderated, valuable interest forums. One does not need a yahoo mail account to join these, however.

Yahoo is now owned by AOL I can't imagine any improvements with them in charge the future is grim. I never use the yahoo account I have it may not even exist anymore.

Using Att internet service, we have no choice but to use Yahoo. Boo.

Yahoo is linked to FLICKR. I guess they have our credit card number now. :0)

The last five hacked emails to me came from gmail, hotmail, and msn, not yahoo.

Yahoo is owned by Verizon.

@Ravencajun and Brushworks -- Verizon owns AOL as of ? spring 2015. Verizon's purchase of Yahoo has not been completed (per news accounts).

@nicole -- you have to pay for a Flickr account? I thought it was free. Maybe you have a premium whatever? I think the reports/news said that it appears credit card info was t compromised.

Verizon just learned if the hacking, but Yahoo has known for a while.

Our household has a hodgepodge of mail accounts. Ugh. What service IS better?

I wonder if Yahoo, being on the ropes, failed to invest time or resources in securing their servers. I bet Verizon is doing some re-calculations unless they are absolutely locked in on the price.

any suggestions for mailers?

@Brushworks _ what do you mean by the last 5 hacked emails? Do you mean spam?

Hmmm. I haven't used my Yahoo account for about three years now. I know it's not linked to anything other than its password. (Which is a password I only use for things I don't care diddly about.)

Right now I use gmail for everything. My ISP keeps changing/being bought out/whatever, and I got tired of having to do new accounts and notifying everyone each time that happened. I don't think Google is going anywhere for awhile.

I wonder what % of their total accounts is 500 million the number estimated to have been compromised). Anyone know?

Verizon merged AOL and Yahoo or that's the plan according to the articles I saw. It can't be a good thing.

" It can't be a good thing."

Why do you say that?

The deal is scheduled to close next year. The companies will operate independently until then. Yahoo is a shadow of its former self, its value having declined by more than 90% since the peak. Lots of users, an inadequate amount of income to show for it. It's run out of steam and has been beaten by competitors in almost every category. There was no other outcome than for someone to buy the underproducing assets for cheap and try to make them profitable.

Most of the people I knew who worked at Y have left or are in the process of leaving. The last CEO, Marissa Meyer, was a disaster. She wasn't singlehandedly responsible for running the company into the ground but she made a major contribution to the end result.

petalique....if you pay for a FLICKR account then they give you stats. IE: where or how people are finding your photos. Which of your photos are most viewed. It's called a PRO account.

I meant the AOL part could not be a good thing, it's a dinosaur and should have died already.

The news stories are all making this seems like something that just happened within the last few days. The accounts were stolen in 2014, and Yahoo apparently had absolutely no idea. They only found out when some other organization discovered someone offering to sell 200 million Yahoo accounts and told Yahoo about it. Even with that it took Yahoo a couple of months to release the news of the hack.

I have/had a Yahoo mail account that I only gave to sites I never actually wanted to hear from. I've long since lost the password, and the other e-mail they had on file for resetting passwords has also long since been closed.

Yes, I understand that, Elmer, and do use others as well. But this one was set up from the beginning.

You're right, raven, AOL is a dinosaur. I think it started life as perhaps the first nationwide dial-up ISP. From a Google search, I learned there are still remnants of that business still active and profitably so. Yahoo is arguably a dinosaur too as its more modern and dynamic competitors have flown past to create a different future than it envisioned. There is IP and a lot of capabilities sitting in the company that may or may not be more productive with better management. Either way, it's just a small gamble for Verizon, the purchase price is about one quarter's income.

sjerin, all of us "get" at least one email address that comes with whatever internet service is used. Not that what I do is necessarily right or an example of anything, but for me, I never access it. Never. There could be a gazillion messages in the inbox but as I've never given the address out or sent a message from it, it can sit there forever unused. Using it is a choice, and not the best one, because if/when you change service providers (as many of us have done from time to time), you lose the address.

When the tech came out to set me up with Comcast xfinity Internet he said he was required to set up an email address for the account. I said fine I just won't be using it. He said neither do I lol. I have checked it a time or two and the email in it was from Comcast. Luckily nothing important. I just deleted everything. I never use the email address from my service provider. I had created a nice website when I was with Verizon fios and of course when I moved here my account was closed and I lost my nice website. That's what you have to expect when using anything provided by the service provider. I got my Hotmail account way back when I had MSN dialup!

I just heard from a techy. I asked that since the breach was in 2014 and the cows are out of the barn, why does anyone with a super duper password (versus PASSWORD) need to rush to change their passwords.

1. The theft was of the database of passwords which (if I understand correctly) is different than Joe, Mary, Tom, Dick, Harry and Sue's passwords.

2. Yahoo has to at least look/be/cya responsible.

3. Yahoo, as people have pointed out, has been sliding downhill for a long time, so, ahem, just maybe, they were not going to be spending funds for security experts, technology and white-hat hackers to keep membership info secure.

4. We all know this, but to state the obvious: one needn't enter personal information such as your pet's name, where you were born, your favorite flavor....Get creative and keep a little crib sheet about it. It's true, however, that if you ever run from president of a big important country, and your detractors find out that you fibbed or were not completely truthful about this important information, you could spend eternity assuring voters that you are overall decent, committed and will serve their interests.

I think our family might want to overhaul the mongrel email programs we use. So, what's out there that might be reliable? G?

Good point about using one's service provider email account then getting essentially locked out of it when you switch carriers.

I asked the techy my question of just what percent of their users would 500 million be. Techy said the Yahoo isn't going to let anyone know. Of course.

My guess is its all of 'em that have ever existed.

Silly question but how would you know if your yahoo account was hacked? Thanks!

Unfortunately, I just love the Yahoo. Once my account was hacked and sent emails to everyone on my contact list. I didn't know until people notified me. Be VERY careful to verify any email that you receive to ensure it's from a legitimate source. If in doubt, DELETE.

got it. thanks.

Annie, here's more useful information:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/how-check-if-your-yahoo-account-has-been-hacked-what-do-next-1582941?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rss&utm_content=/rss/yahoous/news&yptr=yahoo

It happened in 2014 and they are just now getting around to telling their customers. By reading the notice, one gets the impression that they did not discover it until recently, but I did see mention of the date when they did become aware. Its strange this announcement became public now that the company is being examined for possible sale.