Yahoo: State hackers stole data from half a billion user accounts

Yahoo has revealed that hackers stole the data of approximately 500 million user accounts in 2014. In addition, the internet company believes that the burglars were sent by the government of an undisclosed country.

In a statement, Yahoo confirms the hack, which rumors had already surfaced earlier on Thursday. About half a billion accounts affected may have had their usernames, passwords, phone numbers, email addresses and dates of birth stolen. Affected users will be notified and must change their password. According to Yahoo, the passwords were stored encrypted, most of them with bcrypt. Payment details, such as credit cards, would not have been stolen, although the company admits that the investigation into the hack is still ongoing.

Although it has not been made clear who exactly broke into the servers, Yahoo itself believes that these are hackers sent by a government. However, it was not disclosed which country it would be. Yahoo is collaborating with government agencies to investigate the hack. In recent years there have been more reports of state hackers: Western governments and companies regularly complain about hacker intrusions that are allegedly sent by, among others, the Russian and Chinese governments.

Shortly before the announcement, Recode already announced that Yahoo would announce this hack. However, the burglars already entered the servers in 2014. And last month, the data of about 200 million accounts suddenly appeared to be offered online, but then Yahoo could not yet confirm the authenticity of the hack. However, the company recommended that you set a new password. Ultimately, it turns out that data from significantly more users has been stolen.