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Hackers steal data from 500 million Yahoo users

In the largest ever publicly disclosed security breach, Yahoo has admitted that user information from 500 million accounts, including names, emails and unencrypted security questions, has been stolen

Though Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was aware of the size of the leak, the company has only just admitted it publicly

Yahoo has disclosed that hackers have gained access to the account information of approximately 500 million users, in what is the largest publicly disclosed data breach in history.

In a statement released on its Tumblr account, Yahoo has confirmed that a significant volume of account information was stolen from its servers in 2014. Information potentially compromised in the breach includes names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords, and security questions and answers. However, Yahoo also stated that no bank account information or payment card data was affected. The company is recommending users reset any passwords that haven’t been changed since 2014, across Yahoo services and any external accounts that used the same or similar passwords.

As part of its statement, Yahoo said it believes a ‘state-sponsored actor’ carried out the attack, but did not offer any further details or specificity. It also said it is closely working with law enforcement agencies on the matter.

As part of its statement, Yahoo said it believes a ‘state-sponsored actor’ carried out the attack

The company appears to have responded slowly to the breach. As reported by Motherboard in August, a hacker using the pseudonym ‘Peace’ advertised the sale of 200m Yahoo user accounts on the dark web. At the time, Yahoo said it was investigating the authenticity of the claim.

The breach is the biggest in history, impacting significantly more people than the 360m Myspace users hit in the previous record-setting breach earlier this year.

The hack also comes at an extremely sensitive time for Yahoo. In July, Verizon agreed to purchase Yahoo for $4.8bn, with the deal set to close by early 2017. The fomrer titan of the internet struggled to keep up with the transformation of the online advertising business and was posting spiralling losses. In an interview with the BBC, Verizon confirmed it had only received news of the breach ‘within the last two days’ and had access to only limited information.

To read more on the tragic demise of Yahoo, check out The New Economy‘s special report on the company, in print and online.