Thursday, September 22, 2016

Yahoo: Over 500 Million User Accounts Hacked

Sunnyvale-based Yahoo said on Thursday that it had been backed by what is believes is a "state-sponsored actor", and that more than 500 million user accounts had been hacked. Yahoo confirmed via a statement that names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords, and in some cases security questions and answers had all been compromised sometime in late 2014. Yahoo said it is notifying potentially affected users, and asking users to change their passwords--in addition, it is invalidating unencrypted security questions and answers. Yahoo said that online intrusion and thefts by "state-sponsored actors" have become "increasingly common" across the technology industry.