Billion Yahoo users hacked in biggest web theft of all time

HACKERS have stolen private data belonging to more than a billion Yahoo users in the largest online theft in history.

The internet giant revealed that the information stolen could include names, email addresses, phone numbers and security passwords.

The massive breach comes after the US firm was hacked in September, when 00million accounts were targeted by cyber-criminals.

Last night Yahoo had not established the source of the hack, stating only that it was due to an ‘unauthorised third party’ and added that it was working closely with law enforcement.

The company believes the data was stolen in August 2013. It added that it did not believe that bank account information and paymentcard data were affected.

Criminals can use private data to hack into confidential accounts, carry out identity fraud and send spam emails containing rogue software that can be used to hijack computers. The hack could raise questions over whether Yahoo’s proposed multi-billion acquisition by mobile communications company Verizon is in jeopardy.

In a statement, Verizon said that it will monitor the situation as Yahoo investigates and will review the ‘new development before reaching any final conclusions’ regarding any takeover.

A spokesman declined to answer further questions last night. Yahoo advised its users to change their passwords and invalidate their current security questions to prevent their accounts being tampered with.

‘Yahoo believes an unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts,’ a statement said. ‘Yahoo believes this incident is likely to be distinct from the incident the company disclosed on September 22, 2016.’

In that attack, the UK Information Commis- sioner’s office confirmed that more than eight million Yahoo users in Britain had been affected.

The Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham added: ‘The vast number of people affected by this cyber attack is staggering and demonstrates just how severe the consequences of a security hack can be.’

Although the data was stolen in 2014, it took Yahoo years to admit to the breach – which it then blamed on ‘a state sponsored’ hacker. At the time, BT and Sky customers were also advised to change their account passwords, after it emerged that both companies used email technology supplied by Yahoo.

Professor Alan Woodward, a computer security expert at the University of Surrey said at the time of the 2014 hack: ‘At 00 million users, it’s difficult to see how a data breach can get bigger than this. Big internet names keep falling like dominos.’

Claims that a ‘nation state’ hacked Yahoo may come back to haunt the firm if ‘it turns out it was hacked by a teenage boy in his bedroom’, he said.