Telecom tells Xtra customers to change passwords

If you have an @xtra.co.nz email address and you haven't changed your password since the Yahoo Xtra service was attacked by hackers earlier this week, do it now.

Telecom is advising users of its Yahoo Xtra email service to change their passwords and enhance their email security.

“We would like to thank the 50,000 customers who have changed their passwords since this issue first arose last weekend,” said Telecom's retail chief executive, Chris Quin.

"However, we would like to see all our 450,000 Yahoo! Xtra customers change their passwords. Yahoo! has given Telecom an assurance that changing customer passwords stops malicious ‘spam’ emails being sent without the customer’s knowledge if their account has been compromised."

The company will be sending out emails to Xtra customers that have been confirmed to be affected by the security breach. If those customers do not change their passwords within 24 hours they will be forced to change passwords the next time they sign in.

The first batch of 10,000 customers affected will be emailed today.