Yahoo is releasing inactive Yahoo IDs so that users can score a better email address. This means you can finally have albert@yahoo.com instead of albert9330399@yahoo.com, for example. Sounds great, right? It’s actually a spectacularly bad idea. 
 
 In a Tumblr post, the company announced that on July 15, it will be “freeing up” Yahoo email addresses that have been inactive for a year or more. But it’s not just deactivating these accounts, it’s going to offer them to other people. 
 
 In mid July, anyone can have a shot at scoring the Yahoo! ID they want. In mid August, users who staked a claim on certain IDs can come to Yahoo! to discover which one they got. 
 
 This may have seemed like a good way to get people to log in again, or to try to convert new users to a groovy Yahoo address. But it’s a terrible idea. It means that people will be able to claim Yahoo IDs and use them to take over other people’s identities via password resets and other methods. 
 
 For example, someone who uses a Yahoo email address solely as a backup for Gmail, and thus hasn’t logged into it for a long time, would be vulnerable to having that address taken over by a malicious individual who only wanted to ultimately get into the active Gmail address. You can see a chain of events where that could lead to taking over online banking accounts, social media accounts and the like. 
 
 Nor would it be hard to discover some of these inactive addresses. You could, for example, find a dormant Flickr account, which previously required a Yahoo email address. 
 
 The bottom line is that unless it rethinks this policy, this is going to lead to a social engineering gold rush come mid-July. Wired has reached out to Yahoo for comment. 
 
 Update 9:49 PM: Yahoo released a statement saying it has confidence it can make this transition securely. We’ve included it below. ||||| By Jay Rossiter, SVP, Platforms 
 
 Over the last few months, we’ve made exciting changes to some of your favorite Yahoo! products, like Flickr, Mail, Weather, the Homepage and Search. Today, I’m excited to share with you our next big push: we want to give our loyal users and new folks the opportunity to sign up for the Yahoo! ID they’ve always wanted. 
 
 If you’re like me, you want a Yahoo! ID that’s short, sweet, and memorable like albert@yahoo.com instead of albert9330399@yahoo.com. A Yahoo! ID is not only your email address, it also gives you access to content tailored to your interests – like sports scores for your favorite teams, weather in your hometown, and news that matters to you. 
 
 So, how are we making these Yahoo! IDs available? We’re freeing up IDs, that have been inactive for at least 12 months, by resetting them and giving them a fresh start. In mid July, anyone can have a shot at scoring the Yahoo! ID they want. In mid August, users who staked a claim on certain IDs can come to Yahoo! to discover which one they got. 
 
 What if you haven’t logged into Yahoo! for over a year, but want to keep your Yahoo! ID? It’s easy. All you have to do is log on to any Yahoo! product before July 15th. 
 
 We’ve got a lot more in store that will make your everyday routines even more inspiring. We’re happy to have you as a part of the Yahoo! community!
– Got an old Yahoo email address kicking around that you haven't checked in a year or so? Better log in over the next few weeks if you'd like to keep it. Otherwise, Yahoo is going to free it up for someone else. The example it uses is letting someone claim an address of "albert@yahoo.com" rather than "albert9330399@yahoo.com." It may sound like some harmless house-cleaning, but this is a "spectacularly bad idea," writes Mat Honan at Wired. "It means that people will be able to claim Yahoo IDs and use them to take over other people’s identities via password resets and other methods," he writes. If someone has a seldom-used Yahoo account as a backup to Gmail, for example, this raises the possibility that the new owner of the Yahoo address will figure out a way into the Gmail account. Yahoo insists it will take pains to make sure that any recycled ID is safe and secure, but Honan wants the company to rethink this one. Otherwise, "this is going to lead to a social engineering gold rush come mid-July." Click for his full post.