SEPTEMBER 23, 2016 – At least 500 million Yahoo accounts have been hacked.
The perpetrators have gained access to personal data including names, passwords, phone numbers, security questions, etc.
Yahoo confirmed the development late on Thursday, citing a state-sponsored hack which took place in 2014.
Investigations are ongoing with law enforcement but the company has reason to believe credit card and bank details were not among the looted information.
In a statement released, the company said: “The ongoing investigation suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information; payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system that the investigation has sound to be affected.”
Although, the impact of the hack may be light but it is not inconsequential as it may affect the sale of Yahoo’s $4.8bn deal with Verizon.
The company is notifying all users affected by the hack and has told anyone who hasn’t changed their password since 2014 to do so.
“Yahoo encourages users to review their online accounts for suspicious activity and to change their password and security questions and answers for any other accounts on which they use the same or similar information used for their Yahoo account.”
