Attn: Yahoo Account Holders: Your Info May Have Been Stolen, Company Says Theft Affects "At Least" Half A Billion Yahoo Account Holders Worldwide; Here's Info And Advice
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(Sept. 22, 2016, 1:25 p.m.) -- In what is believed to be the largest theft of personal data in digital history -- and affects information associated with "at least" half a billion Yahoo user accounts -- the Sunnyvale-based company today (Sept. 22 release text and link below) stated that it believes a "state sponsored actor" stole the information from its network in late 2014...and the theft may include names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and in some cases encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
Yahoo says its ongoing investigation suggests the stolen information didn't include unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank information aren't stored in the system found to be affected.
In a company statement (below), Yahoo says it's 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."
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Below is the company's full release text
[Yahoo Sept. 22, 2016 release text] -- A recent investigation by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has 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 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. 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.
Yahoo 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.
Online intrusions and thefts by state-sponsored actors have become increasingly common across the technology industry. Yahoo and other companies have launched programs to detect and notify users when a company strongly suspects that a state-sponsored actor has targeted an account. Since the inception of Yahoo's program in December 2015, independent of the recent investigation, approximately 10,000 users have received such a notice.
Additional information will be available on the Yahoo Security Issue FAQs page, https://yahoo.com/security-update, beginning at 11:30 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on September 22, 2016...
(To view the above information as released to Business Wire, click here.)
