Hack Alert: Yahoo 2

Pressure on Yahoo continued to grow following disclosure that more than one billion user accounts may have been breached.

09:27 22 December 2016

In September, Yahoo has disclosed a huge hacking that took place in 2014. Cyber security experts and the police who were investigating the incident that affected more than 500,000 user accounts uncovered the 2013 breach involving more than one billion users accounts. The company’s share fell more than 6per cent on Wall Street as fears that a planned sale to Verizon was in doubt.

 

Verizon, which agreed to buy Yahoo’s core internet business in July for $4.8bn, is reportedly trying to persuade Yahoo to amend the terms of the acquisition agreement to reflect the economic damage from the two hacks.

 

In October, Verizon had already said it was reviewing the deal after September's breach disclosure. On Wednesday, the company said it would "review the impact of this new development before reaching any final conclusions" about whether to proceed.

 

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who described the breach as “deeply troubling”, is looking into Yahoo's cyber security practices.

 

"This most-recent revelation warrants a separate follow-up and I plan to press the company on why its cyber defences have been so weak as to have compromised over a billion users," he said in a statement.

 

Cyber security experts also weighed in. Stu Sjouwerman, chief executive of cyber security firm KnowBe4, said: "Yahoo has fallen down on security in so many ways I have to recommend that if you have an active Yahoo email account, either direct with Yahoo of via a partner like AT&T, get rid of it"