Yahoo Hacked With At Least Half Billion Accounts, World’s Biggest Cyber Breach In History
ByYahoo Inc. made it known that at least a half billion of Yahoo accounts were hacked, the theft marks the world's biggest cyber breach in history. The hackers may have stolen email addresses, names, dates of birth, telephone numbers and encrypted passwords.
A well-known cryptologist Bruce Schneier stated that this is the biggest data breach ever. Schneier also said that the impact on the tech company and its users remained unclear, for the reason that many questions remain, which includes the identity of the state-sponsored hackers behind it.
A representative of Yahoo said in a press release that the cyber breach, which took place in 2014, made known email addresses, names, birth dates, phone numbers, as well as security questions and answers. Also, Encrypted password were taken, in which are mixed up so only a person with the right passcode can read them.
The search engine company, which is in the process of selling itself to the broadband telecommunications company Verizon, stated that they are working closely with law enforcement regarding the hacking incident. Yahoo dubbed the hackers as a state-sponsored actor, even though the tech giant didn't identify a country behind the breach, based on the report of CNET.
Verizon, which has agreed to purchase Yahoo, claimed that they have not been informed about the hack until a couple of days ago, according to BBC.
As Yahoo has 1 billion monthly active users for all its internet services, which span finance, online shopping as well as fantasy football. The American multinational tech company urged its users to change their passwords (but did not require it) if they haven't since 2014, Yahoo reported.
However, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's Chief Executive Officer, is under pressure to shore up the flagging fortunes of the website, in which in July, the company agreed to a $4.83 billion cash sale of its internet business to Verizon.
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