Hackers swiped personal information associated with at least a half billion Yahoo accounts, the internet giant said Thursday, marking the biggest data breach in history. This includes all private information of Yahoo users, including their names, email, telephone numbers, addresses, and passwords.
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Yahoo believes a state-sponsored hacker accessed at least 500 million Yahoo accounts in 2014. If hackers get the password for one of your online accounts, they can try to use it to access your other accounts that take the same credentials.
He echoed Yahoo’s advice for users to change their passwords and added that companies must also take further measures to protect user data.
Over 500 million accounts were compromised in the data breach, which happened in 2014, and the company is now taking action to protect affected users. That could happen if users shun Yahoo or file lawsuits because they’re incensed by the theft of their personal information.
Yahoo did not immediately respond to specific questions from Business Insider on its delay reporting the breach to affected users. It was as if they were reluctant to hand it over, he said. The internet company said a wide array of user information was taken from its network in 2014 by a “state-sponsored actor”, but it does not include unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank account information.
In the meantime, even if you haven’t gotten an email from them, it’s still a good idea to change your password and enable two-factor authentication anyway.
“Since this breach occurred in 2014 and wasn’t properly communicated or handled, it may very well give Verizon an “out” or a reason to renegotiate”.
The email service had been badly hit by spammers, forcing some email accounts to be locked down until users changed their password.
“With state-sponsored attacks, it’s not just financial information that’s of value”, said Lance Hoffman, co-director of the Cyberspace Security and Privacy Institute at George Washington University.
Yahoo says it is working with law enforcement on the breach. Here are some answers to basic questions that you may have about the breach.
Suspicion of a hack first arose in August, according to CNN Money, when a someone tried selling information from 200 million accounts.
Does Yahoo have a place where I can find all this information?
Yahoo’s chief information security officer Bob Lord, said: “An increasingly connected world has come with increasingly sophisticated threats”.
Yahoo confirmed Thursday that 500 million email accounts have been compromised.
Of all the information stolen by hackers, Nelson said security question details may be the most concerning to users.
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A person familiar with the situation said Peace’s assertion prompted Yahoo to initiate an internal investigation. The hacker was attempting to sell them on data marketplace “The Real Deal”, reported Vice, but it is not confirmed whether that breach is linked to this one. It was believed earlier that Yahoo had suffered a breach in 2012.
