It's time to get everything out of Yahoo! and set fire to the servers.
Last time Yahoo! finally admitted to a massive security breach, many of us raced to remove all data from our accounts and lock ourselves out. That was for 500 million accounts. This second hack is for 2 billion.
As we previously disclosed in November, law enforcement provided us with data files that a third party claimed was Yahoo user data. We analysed this data with the assistance of outside forensic experts and found that it appears to be Yahoo user data. Based on further analysis of this data by the forensic experts, we believe an unauthorised third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts. We have not been able to identify the intrusion associated with this theft. We believe this incident is likely distinct from the incident we disclosed on September 22, 2016.
For potentially affected accounts, the stolen user account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The investigation indicates that the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information. Payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system the company believes were affected.
Last time Yahoo! finally admitted to a massive security breach, many of us raced to remove all data from our accounts and lock ourselves out. That was for 500 million accounts. This second hack is for 2 billion.
As we previously disclosed in November, law enforcement provided us with data files that a third party claimed was Yahoo user data. We analysed this data with the assistance of outside forensic experts and found that it appears to be Yahoo user data. Based on further analysis of this data by the forensic experts, we believe an unauthorised third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts. We have not been able to identify the intrusion associated with this theft. We believe this incident is likely distinct from the incident we disclosed on September 22, 2016.
For potentially affected accounts, the stolen user account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The investigation indicates that the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information. Payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system the company believes were affected.