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Nearly half a billion of Yahoo’s customers had their information hacked two years ago by what they believe is a foreign government.

Seeing that a multi-billion dollar company couldn’t prevent this and just found out, how are we supposed to protect ourselves?

We went to the experts to find out.

When asked for your password in-person, it’s pretty easy to keep it a secret. But for hackers, all they have to do is look at your online activity.

“Look at the stuff you put on Facebook. All that information is a roadmap to identity theft.”

Ken Owen says he’s been a hacker for most of his life, in fact, he has a doctorate in it.

“I started my PhD and I needed a topic and it seemed like a natural thing to study the behaviour of hackers.”

Owen says most hackers are just tech-enthusiasts who explore the limits of the web, but when their discoveries fall into the wrong hands, bad things happen. Yahoo just found out that they were hacked two years ago. So what are you doing to stay safe?

“Personally don’t use online banking using public wi-fi. I just do it from home. Have a base that’s really similar to all my accounts but changing one or two different characters.”

So you think you’re safe online, you change your password, have great security questions but according to Ken Owen you aren’t doing enough.

Owen’s first suggestion may surprise you.

“Whenever possible, really, you want to lie. Because if you can say you’re birthday is January 1st when it’s actually January 30th someone trying to steal your identity will make a mistake.”

Also, limit your online presence and keep an eye on your bank statements and credit.

“It’s about managing your profile online. Making sure you’re the smallest target, least interesting. Let someone else who’s low hanging fruit be the victim.”

There are also several websites you can visit to check to see if you’re online services have been compromised. shouldichangemypassword.com and have ibeenpowned.com are just a few you can use.