Yahoo has definitely had some difficult years. The famous company was affected by two serious data breaches and has lost a lot when it comes to image. Now, Yahoo has revealed that it actually believes that all its 3 billion accounts were affected by the 2013 data breach. Initially, the famous company believed that only 1 billion accounts were impacted.
Yahoo revealed in a notice that a further investigation conducted by the company of the 2013 data breach revealed that most likely all of its 3 billion accounts were impacted. This means that the data of all people who use Yahoo email accounts or people who registered for Yahoo services like Flick has been affected.
“The investigation indicates that the information that was stolen did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information. Payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system the company believes was affected,” Yahoo said.
Yahoo claimed that it found out that such a high number of accounts were affected while getting into the possession of new evidence it discovered when working on its acquisition. Yahoo is currently part of Oath. The company was bought by Verizon for $4.5 billion, and then merged with AOL. When communicating about the finding, Yahoo also claimed that the company took all the necessary action to protect all Yahoo accounts back in 2016.
Without a doubt, this is another huge blow for Yahoo, but also for Verizon, now. “Verizon is committed to the highest standards of accountability and transparency, and we proactively work to ensure the safety and security of our users and networks in an evolving landscape of online threats,” Verizon stated. “Our investment in Yahoo is allowing that team to continue to take significant steps to enhance their security, as well as benefit from Verizon’s experience and resources,” the company added.
It remains unclear if Yahoo will have to suffer any consequences because of this. Several shareholder lawsuits were filed against the company following the reveal of the data breach, thus Verizon might be in the situation of having to pay some damages.
