Ebun Francis with agency reports
Yahoo has has announced that more than one billion user accounts may have been affected in a hacking attack dating back to 2013. The company disclosed that names, phone numbers and email addresses were stolen by the hackers, but banks and payment data were not affected.
The current disclosure by Yahoo is different from the 500 million accounts it revealed in September was breached in 2014 .
The company, which is being taken over by Verizon, said it was working closely with the police and authorities. In a statement, yahoo said it “believes an unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts.”
The breach “is likely distinct from the incident the company disclosed on September 22, 2016”.
However, the three-year-old hack was uncovered as part of continuing investigations by authorities and security experts into the 2014 breach, Yahoo said.
Account users have been urged to change their passwords and security questions.