Yahoo Says At Least 500 Million Accounts Was Hacked 

Yahoo Inc has confirmed that a data breach has compromised the details of at least 500 million users.

The company said that certain account information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014 in what it believes was a ‘state-sponsored actor’. 

It said that account information affected could include names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, hashed passwords and encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.

They added that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank account information. 

Yahoo said they would notify potentially affected users by email as well as post additional information to its website, calling on people to change their passwords as soon as possible. 

YAHOO HACK: WHAT IS AND ISN’T AFFECTED? 

A statement from Yahoo’s security team says that the account information affected 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.

Hashing is a mathematical functino that converts an original string of data into a random string of characters. As such they cannot be converted into the original plan text password. Bcrypt is a password hashing mechanism that provide advanced protection against password hacking.

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 found to be affected. 

A letter to users from Bob Lord, the Chief Information Security Officer, added that users should review their accounts for suspicious activity and avoid clicking on links from suspicious emails. 

A statement added that an ‘ongoing investigation found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo’s network.’

It was not clear how such a disclosure might affect Yahoo’s plan to sell its email service and other core internet properties to Verizon Communications Inc for $4.8billion.