Yahoo says "state-sponsored" hackers
stole information from about 500 million users in what appears to be
the largest publicly disclosed cyber-breach in history.
The breach included swathes of personal information, including names and emails, as well as “unencrypted security questions and answers”.
The hack took place in 2014 but has only now been made public.
The FBI has confirmed it is investigating the claims.
Stolen
data includes names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth
and encrypted passwords, but not credit card data, Yahoo said.
It
said the information was "stolen by what we believe is a
state-sponsored actor" but did not say which country it held
responsible.
Password change urged
News of a possible major attack on the technology firm emerged in
August when a hacker known as "Peace" was apparently attempting to sell
information on 200 million Yahoo accounts.
On Thursday, Yahoo confirmed the breach was far bigger than first thought.
Yahoo is recommending all users should change their passwords if they have not done so since 2014.
In
the UK, ISPs Sky and BT issued warnings for customers that they may be
affected by the breach as Yahoo provides email services for both ISPs.
Sky advised all its customers to change their passwords as Yahoo is
behind all Sky.com email accounts.
BT said it was carrying out
its own investigation but advised the "minority" of its customers who
use Yahoo mail to change their passwords.
No comments:
Post a Comment