Yahoo Hack Exposes Data From 500M Users

More than 500 million Yahoo users had their information, including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, encrypted passwords, and in some cases security questions, exposed by hackers. Yahoo has said it believes a “state-sponsored actor” hacked the system in 2014. The breach is the largest known intrusion of one company’s computer network. Yahoo is one of the internet’s biggest sites, with one billion monthly users. Verizon Communications is also in the process of acquiring Yahoo for $4.8 billion. “This is one of the biggest breaches of people’s privacy and very far-reaching,” said Alex Holden, founder of Hold Security. “The stolen Yahoo data is critical because it not only leads to a single system but to users’ connections to their banks, social media profiles, other financial services and users’ friends and family.”