Yahoo hack: At least 500 million accounts targeted in 'state-sponsored' attack

Hacked: Yahoo
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Mark Chandler23 September 2016

At least 500 million Yahoo accounts have been hacked in one of the world's largest ever data breaches, the company has confirmed.

Yahoo said the hack dated back to late 2014 and blamed a "state-sponsored actor" for the breach.

The stolen data includes users' names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and security questions for verifying an account holder's identity.

In a blog, the company wrote: "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 said it was notfying all potentially affected users and advising them to change their passswords.

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