Reports today are suggesting that Yahoo is preparing to announce a massive data breach. According to a report by Recode, the company will reveal 200 million accounts were affected. However, the details will show that the breach actually occurred back in 2012. This is the latest major attack to befall a giant tech company, following a similar breach on LinkedIn.
Rumors of a Yahoo breach have stretched back as far as August. The attack was a data leak that saw the sale of 200 million Yahoo accounts on the dark web. User details leaked were in-depth too, such as email addresses, passwords, and personal information.
The exact size of the breach is not known, but it is believed to be serious. Yahoo will detail the exact nature of the breach and its impact when it goes official with the news. While a group probably perpetrated the attack, one hacker called ‘Peace’ was selling the accounts. One account would cost three Bitcoins.
Yahoo has never officially acknowledged this breach. The company did not even warn users or tell them to change details. This means either the company could not find out about the attack or it never happened. The latest reports suggest it did indeed suffer a breach and an announcement now would be kind of pointless.
Yahoo Sale
The timing could hardly be worse for Yahoo. The company has agreed to sell its operating business to Verizon for $4.83 billion. That deal is going to go through officially in the coming months. Perhaps Yahoo is clearing the decks before the acquisition is finalized.
The dot.com giant has gone through tough times over the last decade. Once the biggest website and social platform online, Yahoo has declined rapidly. The company brought in former Google exec Marissa Mayer (image) to attempt to right the ship, but her efforts largely failed.
Mayer was known to be against selling the company when companies like Microsoft were thought to be interested. However, the board have pushed through the sale to Verizon and the telecommunications giant now has the task of reviving a sleeping giant.
