UPDATED: Yahoo says hackers stole data from more than 1 billion accounts

Last edited Wed Dec 14, 2016, 07:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Boston Globe

NEW YORK Yahoo says it believes hackers stole data from more than one billion user accounts in August 2013.

The Sunnyvale, California, company says its a different breach from the one it disclosed in September, when it said 500 million accounts were exposed. That new hack revelation raises questions about whether Verizon will try to change the terms of its $4.8 billion proposed acquisition of Yahoo.

Yahoo says the information stolen may include names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and security questions and answers. The company says it believes bank-account information and payment-card data were not affected.

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UPDATE:

Yahoo says 1 billion user accounts hacked

By Craig Timberg and Hayley Tsukayama December 14 at 5:48 PM
Yahoo said Wednesday that 1 billion user accounts -- meaning most of the Internet giant's customers worldwide -- were hacked by a "state-sponsored" attacker in 2013, leading to the release of user names, telephone numbers, dates of birth and other personal information.

Report of the hack, coming after the announcement of a separate hack affecting 500 million accounts in September, means that Yahoo has been the victim of two of the biggest data breaches in history, both of which have been announced since Yahoo agreed to sell its core businesses to telecommunications giant Verizon in July for $4.8 billion. The incident raised new questions among analysts regarding the viability of that deal and whether the valuation will need to be changed, especially if the series of hacks triggers litigation against the company.

“The fact that we now have two breaches implies that Yahoo security measures were inadequate. So it is more likely there will be future breaches uncovered,” said analyst Laura Martin, senior analyst entertainment and Internet at Needham Equity Research. “It sounds to me like they never knew about any of these breaches meant they never fixed the problem. The implies that the assets are actually less valuable than we thought.”

In the 2013 incident, Yahoo said that credit card and bank account numbers, which are stored separately, were not affected. The company is requiring customers who were affected to change their passwords.

Yahoo also reported a separate incident Wednesday in which hackers used what the company called "forged cookies" to gain access to some accounts, though it did not give the number. That incident, the company said, appeared to have links to the one announced in September.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/yahoo-says-1-billion-user-accounts-hacked/2016/12/14/a301a7d8-b986-4281-9b13-1561231417c0_story.html?utm_term=.58e11777ad59&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-economy%252Bnation