Yahoo suffers world’s biggest hack affecting 1 billion users

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo has discovered a 3-year-old security breach that enabled a hacker to compromise quiteone billion user accounts, breaking the company’s own undignified record for the largest security breach in history.

The digital heist disclosed weekday occurred in August 2013, quite a year before a separate hack that Yahoo declarednearly 3 months past . That breach affected a minimum of five hundred million users, that had been the foremostsweeping hack till the most recent revelation.

“It’s stunning,” security skilled Avivah Litan of Gartner INC.

Both lapses occurred throughout the reign of Yahoo corporate executive Marissa Mayer, a once-lauded leader WHOfound herself unable to show round the company within the four years since her arrival. Earlier this year, Yahoo in agreement to sell its digital operations to Verizon Communications for $4.8 billion — a deal which will currently be imperiled by the hacking revelations.

TWO HACKS, quite A BILLION ACCOUNTS

Yahoo didn’t say if it believes a similar hacker may need attained 2 separate attacks. The Sunnyvale, California, company infernal the late 2014 attack on a hacker attached with associate unidentified foreign government, howeveraforesaid it hasn’t been able to determine the supply behind the 2013 intrusion.

Yahoo has quite a billion monthly active users, though some have multiple accounts et al. have none in any respect. associate unknown variety of accounts were tormented by each hacks.

In each attacks, the purloined data enclosed names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and security queriesand answers. the corporate says it believes bank-account data and payment-card knowledge weren't affected.

But hackers additionally apparently scarf passwords in each attacks. Technically, those passwords ought to be secure; Yahoo aforesaid they were disorganized double — once by secret writing and once by another technique known ashashing. however hackers became adept at cracking secured secrets by collecting Brobdingnagian dictionaries of equally disorganized phrases and matching them against purloined password databases.

That could mean hassle for any users WHO reused their Yahoo secret for different on-line accounts. Yahoo is requiring users to alter their passwords and disconfirming security queries so that they can’t be accustomed hack into accounts. (You might get a reprieve if you’ve modified your secret and queries since Sep.)

Security consultants aforesaid the 2013 attack was possible the work of an overseas government fishing for dataconcerning specific folks. One huge tell: It doesn’t seem that abundant personal knowledge from Yahoo accounts has been denote purchasable on-line, that means the hack most likely wasn’t the work of standard criminals.

That means most Yahoo users most likely don’t have something to stress concerning, said J.J. Thompson, corporate executive of Rook Security.

QUESTIONS FOR VERIZON

News of the extra hack additional jeopardizes Yahoo’s plans to be Verizon’s arms. If the hacks cause a user backlash against Yahoo, the company’s services wouldn’t be as valuable to Verizon, raising the likelihood that the sale worth may well be re-negotiated or the deal could also be known as off. The medium big needs Yahoo and its several users to assist it build a digital ad business.

After the news of the primary hack stone-broke, Verizon aforesaid it might re-evaluate its Yahoo deal and in an exceedingly weekday statement aforesaid it'll review the “new development before reaching any final conclusions.” voice Bob Varettoni declined to answer additional queries.

At the terribly least, the safety lapses “definitely can facilitate Verizon in its negotiations to lower the worth,” Litan expected. Yahoo has argued that news of the 2014 hack didn’t negatively have an effect on traffic to its services, strengthening its competition that the Verizon deal ought to be completed underneath the initial terms.

“This simply adds to fuel to the fireplace and it won’t facilitate Yahoo’s cause,” aforesaid Eric Jackson, a old critic of the company’s management. though he has within the past, Jackson doesn’t presently own Yahoo stock.

Investors appeared troubled concerning the Verizon deal. Yahoo’s shares fell ninety six cents, or a pair of p.c, to $39.95 once the speech act of the most recent hack.

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