It’s one of the largest data breaches in history.
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-Change your password and security questions and answers for any other accounts on which you used the same or similar information used for your Yahoo account. The company has published an FAQ page about the security problems. The hacker is not now in the company system, Yahoo said.
Yahoo confirmed Thursday that a data breach of its service happened in late 2014, which may affect at least 500 million users.
What’s new about the Yahoo disclosure is that the company is saying it believes “a state actor” took user credentials. That’s an individual acting on behalf of a government. They use it to gain more information since many people use their username and password combination across multiple sites like banks, bill payment systems and retailers. Payment information is stored in a separate spot. But also, security questions and answers to confirm ones identity. But Yahoo has been notifying affected users and asking them to change their passwords.
We are working closely with law enforcement on this matter.
Tech blog Recode reported earlier on Thursday that Yahoo would release the results of its investigation, but the attack turned out to be wider than the initial 200 million accounts.
If you haven’t already, this would be a good time to ditch your Yahoo account password entirely and use the Yahoo Account Key instead.
Blaming it on a state-sponsored actor, however, indicates that Yahoo may have found evidence that the hackers were targeting the company over a long period of time, said Vitali Kremez, a cybercrime analyst at security firm Flashpoint.
Shares of Yahoo stock closed a penny higher at $44.15, while shares of Verizon Communications, which has agreed to buy the company’s Internet business, were up about 1 percent.
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“There are fullz available probably for most of the USA population”, said Litan. But until now, Yahoo never warned anyone to take precautionary measures to protect their accounts, and instead just said that they were investigating the situation. We will evaluate as the investigation continues through the lens of overall Verizon interests, including consumers, customers, shareholders and related communities.
