Yahoo discloses new breach affecting 1 billion users

That's right, 1 billion, with a 'b.'

Yahoo disclosed Wednesday another security incident that is twice as large as incidences the company has previously announced, affecting more than a billion users.

“We believe an unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts,” Yahoo CISO Bob Lord wrote in a blog post. “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.”

Among the data taken were names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The investigation indicates that the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information.

Additionally, the company found that an “unauthorized third party accessed the company’s proprietary code to learn how to forge cookies,” which allowed account access without a password. Yahoo believes that activity was carried out by the same state-sponsored actor believed to be responsible for the breach previously disclosed this year.

The fast few months have been brutal for Yahoo. The previously disclosed breach in September found that user details from more than 500 million Yahoo accounts — including names, birth dates and encrypted passwords — were stolen nearly two years ago by state-sponsored hackers.

A few weeks later, a Reuters report found that Yahoo allowed U.S. intelligence agencies to search emails sent to its customers via a special program built in secret by company engineers

The following stories have come as Yahoo has tried to negotiate to be acquired by telecom giant Verizon for $6.4 billion. After the September breach, there were reports Verizon found “reasonable basis” to back away from the deal.

Representatives from Verizon and Yahoo were not available for comment.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure