There were two major news items reported today with potential for affecting you.

First, 450,000 Yahoo accounts were hacked today. If you have a Yahoo account,  you need to change your password now. If you use that same password anywhere else, you need to change those passwords as well. While you’re doing that, make sure you’re using proper password management. DO NOT use the same password everywhere. Your most sensitive accounts – banking and other financial records for example – should not share a password with any other account. You should be using a password manager program that offers secure storage and the ability to safe backup all your passwords. You can read more about these and other personal security measures on this blog post.:

Second, the sun emitted a huge flare today. Granted, no electronic damage is expected from today’s flare, but there may be a flare in the future – perhaps the not-so-distant future – that will wipe out your computer. Are you properly backed up? See the blog post referenced above for more information.