Yahoo To Now Send Warnings To Users Targeted By Government Attackers

Google and other social companies including Facebook and
Twitter weeks back revealed new moves to warn users
sensed to be targeted by government attackers. Today we
are hearing Yahoo is joining the fray as the mail service
provider just announced via a blog post that, as part of its
user safety and security efforts, it'll now begin notifying
users once it's senses their accounts are been targeted by
state-sponsored hackers.

"We're committed to protecting the security and safety of
our users, and we strive to detect and prevent unauthorized
access to user accounts by third parties. As part of this
effort, Yahoo will now notify you if we strongly suspect that
your account may have been targeted by a state-sponsored
actor. We'll provide these specific notifications so that our
users can take appropriate measures to protect their
accounts and devices in light of these sophisticated attacks."

Bob Lord Yahoo's chief information security officer said in
the blogpost.
On perceiving some type of government attack on an
account, Yahoo says it'll send out the notifications with some
suggested immediate security measures, though the user
shouldn't be totally scared that there's been an account
compromise, but should be "rest assured Yahoo will only
send these notifications of suspected attacks by state-
sponsored actors when they have a high degree of
confidence."

"If you receive one of these notifications, it does not
necessarily mean that your account has been compromised.
Rather, we strongly suspect that you may have been a target
of an attack, and want to encourage you to take steps to
secure your online presence. In addition, these warnings to
our users do not indicate that Yahoo's internal systems have
been compromised in any way ."