1B Account Information Stolen From Yahoo, Surpassing Previous 500M

This might just spell the end for Yahoo Inc. as a company. Managing to surpass its previous record-breaking number of account information stolen of 500 million that it announced last September, Yahoo revealed that over 1 billion login details were also stolen. This is a separate report as well, which means that the company effectively allowed 1.5 billion of its users to become vulnerable.

In a report that Yahoo released last Wednesday, the company admitted to getting hit with a hacking attack back in 2013. As a result of that attack, a significant amount of data was stolen. The hackers managed to get away with information that included the phone numbers of Yahoo users, their birthdates, and even their security questions.

Immediately following this announcement, the Yahoo shares fell by 2.5 percent, USA Today reports. This admission also comes at a time when cyber-attacks are becoming far too common and have become increasingly bold. As Gartner Research Vice President, Avivah Litan told the publication, this is no longer just a problem for the tech industry.

“We truly are under major siege and we’re unprepared for it. It really is a national emergency,” Litan said. “We need a national response plan for this.”

More alarming about the revelation that 1 billion users have been vulnerable since 2013 is Yahoo’s own admission that they don’t know who hit them. As such, hundreds of millions of accounts are at risk from some unknown entity or group that could use the information they gathered for nefarious purposes.

On Yahoo’s part, the announcement is expected to have a significant impact on the $4.8 billion sale that it has arranged with Verizon, Business Insider reports. When the previous report of 500 million accounts stolen was revealed, insiders said that Verizon executives were in a panic. With that number having just been doubled, it wouldn’t be surprising for the acquisition to be canceled altogether.