Yahoo Confirms 500 Million Hacked User Accounts

Yahoo released their official announcement last Thursday on the issue of data breach which occurred in 2014.

The company confirmed that at least 500 million user accounts have been stolen. This is considered as one of the largest assaults to cyber security in the history.

The announcement revealed that Yahoo considers the possibility of a "state-sponsored actor" involvement in the issue. "The account information 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 statement reads.

To protect other users, the company urged the public to get their password changed, set security questions and review suspicious activity in their accounts. Yahoo is also currently coordinating with law enforcement for further knowledge about the hacking incidence, CNN reported.

"The FBI is aware of the intrusion and investigating the matter," a spokesman from FBI guaranteed. "We take these types of breaches very seriously and will determine how this occurred and who is responsible. We will continue to work with the private sector and share information so they can safeguard their systems against the actions of cybercriminals," he added.

Despite the amount of leaked data, Yahoo guaranteed that confidential financial data including credit card details and bank account numbers were not covered by the massive breach.

The rumor surfaced in August after a hacker named "Peace" claimed he has 200 million Yahoo online users' data for sale. He also claimed to have accounts in MySpace and LinkedIn ready to be sold.

Yahoo declared awareness of a claim and started to conduct investigations. Two months later, the company discovered a worse condition which "will cause ripples online for years to come," expert in cybersecurity Per Thorshem said.

A stricter legislation is being recommended by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal suggesting to "make sure companies are properly and promptly notifying consumers when their data has been compromised." He criticized the company saying that "If Yahoo knew about the hack as early as August, and failed to coordinate with law enforcement, taking this long to confirm the breach is a blatant betrayal of their users' trust."

Reports also claimed that this is a sensitive time for Yahoo to suffer from a cybercrime. In July, Verizon agreed to purchase Yahoo's properties for $4.83 billion. The said agreement that was supposed to close in 2017 happened days prior the online breach. Verizon said on their statement that they only learned about the issue this month, "we understand Yahoo is conducting an investigation of this matter, but we otherwise have limited information and understanding of the impact."

Internet Equity Analyst Robert Peck said that the cybercrime does not threaten Verizon's deal with Yahoo, USA Today reported. However, investigations revealed that 5% of users dropped Yahoo which may result to lower price for Verizon. "This could affect the Verizon purchase price from around $100 million to $200 million," the analyst said.

Yahoo pledged to keep up with Verizon up to the completion of the merger.