Yahoo has been having itself a pretty lousy week. As it was closing a $4.8 billion deal to be purchased by Verizon, the media giant was hit by a major hack that affected millions of users’ accounts. But the hack is greater than believed with Business Insider reporting 500 million users’ accounts were breached in 2014, in what executives believe is a state-sponsored actor.
The investigation over a possible hack initially occurred in August, with investigators looking into hackers trying to sell user information. But the web search engine has finally unveiled the extent of the damage. And the prognosis is not looking good, as valuable user information was compromised, according to a release from the company:
“The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The ongoing investigation suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information.”
Thankfully for users, Yahoo said it does not store card data or bank account information in the system that was compromised. It’s not known at this time how the hack will affect the sale to Verizon, but Reuters reports executives are remaining quiet on the deal for now. In the meantime, Yahoo is urging users to change their passwords, which you should do right now.
(Via Business Insider & Reuters)
