AOL announced today that half a million AOL Mail accounts have been compromised. The company first noticed the attack last week and have been working with federal law enforcement to investigate the attack.
AOL Mail users will have to change their passwords and security questions to keep their accounts secure. The attackers gained access to user names, passwords, and other personal information like addresses. AOL says user inboxes were not affected.
The attackers are using compromised AOL Mail accounts in a large-scale phishing attack. Phishing attacks involve masking malicious links in legitimate looking emails. Clicking on malicious links could install harmful software on your computer or will steal your user name and password by using a fake login page.
If you have an AOL Mail account, you should change your password immediately. Make sure the password is unique and not used on any other site. Use a password manager to create and manage unique passwords for all your accounts.
Source: Ars Technica
