Yahoo to confirm data breach of hundreds of millions of users this week

The American internet company Yahoo this week will confirm that it has indeed been hacked and that the personal data of hundreds of millions of users has been stolen. A hacker claimed that in August and Yahoo has been investigating the matter ever since.

Hacker ‘Peace’ claimed in August that it involved 200 million accounts and it seems that Yahoo has discovered that there are at least that many accounts. A source from tech site Recode even says the case is even worse than the hacker made it out to be. That Yahoo will confirm the hack this week, Recode has heard from sources around the company. Yahoo has not yet responded.

Peace claimed earlier this summer that he got hold of the accounts around 2012, and he offered them for sale for three bitcoins, about $1,600. The data provided consists of usernames, md5 hashed passwords, dates of birth and in some cases backup email addresses.

The hack comes at a precarious time. Provider Verizon announced this summer to acquire the activities of Yahoo for 4.4 billion euros. According to Recode, that price may fall because Verizon finds Yahoo less valuable because of the damage caused by the hack.