Using Yahoo Mail? You should turn on this privacy option as soon as possible

It has taken Yahoo a ridiculously long time, but it is finally rolling out an option that will help protect users’ privacy when accessing their web-based email – HTTPS.

Yahoo Mail has lagged behind competitors such as Hotmail (in the process of being rebranded Outlook.com) and Gmail by not allowing users to access their email through HTTPS.

If you don’t have full-session HTTPS turned on for your webmail, anybody on your WiFi network could read any of the emails you write and receive using a tool like FireSheep, as they are transmitted from Yahoo to your browser.

That’s because, without HTTPS, they are sent as unencrypted text.

If you are using Yahoo Mail, my advice is to enable this privacy option as soon as possible. Here’s how you do it…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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