Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Yahoo Says Hackers Stole Information From Over 1 Billion Accounts (go.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the ones-and-zeros dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a breaking report from ABC News: Yahoo says it believes hackers stole data from more than one billion user accounts in August 2013. The Sunnyvale, California, company says it's a different breach from the one it disclosed in September, when it said 500 million accounts were exposed. That new hack revelation raises questions about whether Verizon will try to change the terms of its $4.8 billion proposed acquisition of Yahoo. Yahoo says the information stolen may include names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and security questions and answers. The company says it believes bank-account information and payment-card data were not affected.

7 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. If this deal doesn't collapse... by ChiefGeneralManager · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ....we know our privacy is non-existent. That Verizon could continue to talk of a deal after the last Yahoo! breach was amazing. If Verizon continues with an additional *billion* it shows that neither the market nor the establishment can penalise egregious data loss. It's pathetic that they claim bank account information is likely safe, but the combination of personal data _plus security questions and answers_ opens a whole new field. Wow.

    1. Re:If this deal doesn't collapse... by scrib · · Score: 4, Informative

      I agree completely. My password manager comment section is full of randomly generated passwords to answer those damn "security" questions.
      "In what city were you born?" "cnf3kPiDkYDeYUur"

      --
      Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
    2. Re:If this deal doesn't collapse... by Zak3056 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Cleveland

      --
      What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
  2. Re:Yahoo should simply cease to exist by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

    They haven't caused a major oil or chemical spill, so strictly speaking they haven't failed in every conceivable way!

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  3. Re:Yahoo should simply cease to exist by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I see no reason for them to exist.

    I do. They are a great site for throwaway email accounts, so I can make one-time-use of sites that insist that I "create an account". Of the billion compromised accounts, I suspect that only a small percentage are currently used by real people.

  4. Re:$39 Billion in market cap by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't see how Yahoo has $39 billion in market cap.

    Yahoo was an early investor in Alibaba, and owns about 15% of Alibaba's stock. If you subtract out the value of that stock, the rest of Yahoo actually had negative value prior to Verizon's offer.

  5. Where's my cut? by jon3k · · Score: 4, Funny

    So I think I'm just going to go to the darknet markets and sell all my personal info directly. At least then I get a cut.