I think this new policy shows that Yahoo! does not realize that email addresses represent long-term identity, and 12 months of inactivity is not nearly long enough.
If you ever used a Yahoo! email to register for a website and then you forget about that email address for a year, then somebody else could get that email account, use the “remind/reset password” on said website, and become you.
From there, it doesn’t take much work to chain to your various other accounts. Mat Honan’s famous victimization followed a similar pattern — he lost control of one account and that led to his personal computer being wiped remotely.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/
Originally shared by Lauren Weinstein
http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/52805929240/yourname-yahoo-com-can-be-yours
And apparently Mat Honan agrees: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/yahoos-very-bad-idea/