I heard that as well. Not quite sure of the reasoning if you recently changed your log in info because of their notification. I created my Yahoo account back in the mid 1990's. It was my first home page. I've not provided any additional personal info since then, even though I'm encouraged to do so.

My gender is "unknown" & my birthdate is in 1915. Nothing else is there.

I think this is a personal decision only you can make. If it were me.......the answer would be a resounding "yes". But I haven't like Yahoo for several years and for several reasons. I've never used it as an em program but have been bombarded with spam and other unmentionable crap due to friend's accounts being hacked into where the hacker stole em addresses from their contact lists for their own purposes. One attack was so bad that I had no choice but to delete my own em identify to get rid of the bombardment. That did very little for my usual sunny disposition.

As for the current hacking report...if it's to be believed...the damage already may have been done whether you delete your account or not. "They" didn't hack directly into your particular system. "They" hacked into Yahoo...big time...and for the second time in thus many years. From my understanding of this exploit...there's nothing you could have done about it to protect your data.

As for security measures...follow the standard recommendations always recommended/outlined here. Run a reputable anti malware program at all times and make sure that whatever other firewalls you have in place on your system are properly configured to let in the good guys and block the suspected bad guys.

As for the "real danger"...only time will tell, Lars. Just to be on the safe side...I would surely alert your credit card holders of this latest Yahoo issue....telling them that you use a Yahoo em account...as well as any other financial institutions that you keep/kept on your system. There may be no current threat but one never knows. Proceed with caution is my best advice. And look for another em program that you'll feel comfortable using. This is not the first time Yahoo has been hacked to such great proportions. It would scare me into finding a new em home. Realistically, you have no way of knowing whether this latest hack happened days or months ago. News credibility seems to be sadly lacking.

Good luck!

Google signs up CBS

I think it's important to keep this admittedly concerning news in context. Most people don't have anything in their email files that could be damaging if in the hands of an evil-doer. If you think knowledge of your password could lead to problems elsewhere (which even if true is very unlikely), change your passwords elsewhere. That's a good thing to do anyway.

It isn't so much the break-in that concerns me but rather the YEARS of delay before a public announcement was made. That's an inexcusable breach of trust, especially when done by a publicly held company.

The company today is a shell of its former self, it's a sinking ship that's well on its way to Davy Jones' locker. The execs involved in running the company into the grave, especially CEO Marissa Meyer, will be permanently scared with their individual and collective failures and responsibility for this business's demise.

PS - I personally am ending my Yahoo use, including email. Not as a security decision, but rather, they don't deserve my "clicks" (which in total determine ad placement fees).

I didn't see that CBS said you should delete your Yahoo account. I did see that they said you should consider getting rid of old Yahoo accounts that you no longer use, and change the passwords on those you want to continue to use.

I've got a couple of Yahoo accounts that I use in addition to my main email when I am registering at various sites and I plan to keep them. I find it useful to have such accounts not associated with the email address I use for most of my communications. Do they get spammed? Yes...the same as my Hotmail and Gmail accounts.

Just because Yahoo got hacked doesn't necessarily mean anything for my email accounts, or mean that my computer has been hacked. I'm not saying the overall issue isn't troubling, but I don't think panic is needed. I went into my accounts last night and changed my passwords in my Yahoo accounts and then moved on.

One thing CBS did say is that you should "assume that everyone everywhere can see what you’re posting. That’ll keep hackers from harvesting those juicy details they can use to crack into your accounts." That is good advice regardless of what email service you use. If I handed a hacker printed copies of my emails for the last 25 years, I doubt that there would be anything of much value to be gleaned. I simply don't put credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account info, etc. in my emails. Could a hacker have gotten my phone number out of my Yahoo account? Maybe...or they could just Google it. My address? Google it. My mother's maiden name? Google it.

If all this makes you nervous, then, yes, close your Yahoo account and use some other email service. Just don't be lulled into thinking that that will make you unhackable.

All good points steve. And it underscores why people should use a different password for every important web site. I keep a list of all my different passwords in a Word file stored on a thumb drive, not on my computer. It's printed out for reference and I update it every couple of years when it starts looking too messy from written changes. When I cleaned up the file a few weeks ago, the list had grown to 6 pages, but I know if someone hacks any of the accounts, they will be unable to use the password for any other site. Even if they hacked my Yahoo account, they can't, say, do something else, like impersonate me on GardenWeb... :-)

Almost all of the spam emails I get are from yahoo....

Yahoo has two step authorization .. so does Google and Microsoft and many others.. pretty simple, they need your cellphone or computer to use your login.

I don't even use a yahoo password and cancelled my secret questions... feel pretty safe.

Yahoo biggest problem I think might be the 'hack' stole the users secret questions... you need to look at those secrets and try not to ever again have the same first car, or same mothers maiden name or first dogs name at every site you might have an account - not just at yahoo. These intrusions happened in 2013 & 2014, if nothing has happened by now... will it in future ?

I like yahoo email, probably had account there since middle 90's - its not my main account but it has unlimited throw away account names in the security section which come to the same inbox that I use often so I don't get much spam from the contests or whatever... if I do get spam I know where it came from and can delete that email-name I made.

FWIW - "Keep in mind that terminating a Yahoo account doesn't lead to your personal information being deleted right away. Yahoo's website explains that user data remains on the company's servers for about 90 days, and that backups of that data may be retained indefinitely."

I haven't used my Yahoo Email Account for several years...so I deleted it this morning....only had my name as contact.......had it for 16 years....

Yahoo used to delete or disable email accounts that were inactive for over a month, which is not a long time. I'll probably keep my Yahoo account for now, as it will take a while for me to switch. I do have Hotmail and Gmail. My Hotmail only receives mail from people who are in the address book - and so if I use Hotmail for a new service, I have to check my spam folder and switch the sender to my address book. I've had Gmail for several years and still have not figured out how to file message into folders like I do in Yahoo. I like Yahoo's filing system, and I also used to store people's street addresses in the Yahoo address book, but they got rid of that option some time ago, and I lost a lot of street addresses when they did that :(. Now I'm storing street addresses in a Word document.

Lars-

I don't think Yahoo deletes inactive accounts, but it is true that they make you jump through more hoops if you haven't logged in for a while.

They may not delete inactive accounts any more, but back in the 1990s, they deleted one of my accounts. I think they have changed their policy since then.

I belonged to a Yahoo group and had mail from that group sent from Yahoo to a gmail account. Last week I began getting emails from another "member" filled with links to click on. I knew this was a hacked account. I ended my membership in the group and closed that email account but the emails with malware links kept coming. I am now using filters on my Thunderbird mail to delete them from the POP server so I never see them. I see none this morning!

Been using Yahoo for years. Just changed my password to be on the safe side but have had no problems.