Yahoo admits 500 million accounts hacked in 2014

Yahoo hack in 2014 saw over 500 million users exposed.

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Yahoo had reportedly been hacked a few years ago to the tune of 200 million usernames and passwords of account holders made it onto the dark web by 'Peace', hitting the Tor-based market 'The Real Deal'. Yahoo was said to be close to admitting the hack, but now they have, and it's even bigger than previously thought.

Yahoo admits 500 million accounts hacked in 2014 | TweakTown.com

Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo, Bob Lord, said: "We have confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company's network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The account information 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".

The hashing algorithm used is very secure, and is hard to break, with Lord adding that while no bank data was stolen, users should change their passwords. Lord added: "Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network. Yahoo is working closely with law enforcement on this matter".

NEWS SOURCE:forbes.com

Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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