Yahoo Admits Another Billion Accounts Hacked, Possibly By “State-Sponsored Actor”

Having admitted in September to 200 million accounts hacked, and then confessed it was half a billion in October, Yahoo has just come out with statement confirming that an unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts, and this is likely distinct from the incident they previously disclosed. They do still say that “we have connected some of this activity to the same state-sponsored actor believed to be responsible for the previousdata theft.”
Important Security Information for Yahoo Users
Following a recent investigation, we’ve identified data security issues concerning certain Yahoo user accounts. We’ve taken steps to secure those user accounts and we’re working closely with law enforcement.
What happened?
As we previously disclosed in November, law enforcement provided us with data files that a third party claimed was Yahoo user data. We analyzed this data with the assistance of outside forensic experts and found that it appears to be Yahoo user data. Based on further analysis of this data by the forensic experts, we believe an unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts. We have not been able to identify the intrusion associated with this theft. We believe this incident is likely distinct from the incident we disclosed on September 22, 2016.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Dec 14, 2016.