Yahoo Confirms At Least 500 Mln Users Affected In 2014 Breach

(RTTNews) - Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) confirmed on Thursday that certain users account information were stolen from its network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The company believed that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and its investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network.

The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.

Yahoo noted that it is working closely with law enforcement on this matter.

The ongoing investigation suggested 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.

The internet company, which has agreed to sell its core business to Verizon Communications Inc., said that it is notifying potentially affected users and has taken steps to secure their accounts. These steps include invalidating unencrypted security questions and answers so that they cannot be used to access an account and asking potentially affected users to change their passwords. Yahoo is also recommending that users who haven't changed their passwords since 2014 do so.

Yahoo encourages users to review their online accounts for suspicious activity and to change their password and security questions and answers for any other accounts on which they use the same or similar information used for their Yahoo account. The company further recommends that users avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails and that they be cautious of unsolicited communications that ask for personal information. Additionally, Yahoo asks users to consider using Yahoo Account Key, a simple authentication tool that eliminates the need to use a password altogether.