Marisa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo confirmed two days ago that there had been a large-scale hack that has affected hundreds of millions of users since August of this year.
The company said that certain account information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014 , in what is believed to be a state – sponsored ‘actor’
It is not clear who the ‘actor’ is at the moment.
Yahoo was made aware of the reports two days ago and pledged to investigate. A statement was also added stating that the investigator found no evidence that the state -sponsored actor is currently in the company’s network.
According to the results from the investigation, Yahoo found out that the details of about 500 million users accounts was stolen. This was confirmed in a statement by the US internet giant. Law enforcement agents are working closely with Yahoo on this matter.
Some account information affected include; Names, Email address, Phone number, birthdays, hashed passwords and encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
Yahoo gave a recommendation for users to change their passwords as soon as possible and use alternate methods of account. The stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank account information.
This is just another example of a disturbing trend that is online intrusion and theft by state sponsored action which has become increasingly common across the technology industry.
Programs have been launched by Yahoo and other companies to detect and notify users when a company strongly suspect that a state sponsored actor has targeted an account.