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Yahoo says hackers stole names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers from more than 1 billion accounts.

In a statement posted to its website on Wednesday, the company said it had "taken steps to secure user accounts and is working closely with law enforcement."


This is the second major breach of private user information Yahoo has announced in the past three months. In September, the company said information associated with at least 500 million user accounts had been stolen in 2014, 

That security breach allowed hackers to steal the same types of information the company thinks were stolen in this instance.

The company said that it believes the two incidents were distinct.

 to answer questions from account holders.


In both cases, Yahoo said its outside forensics experts had connected at least some elements of the hacking to a "state-sponsored actor" but did not say which foreign government it believed had supported the hack.

 for $4.8 billion. The purchase is supposed to be finalized early in 2017, but after the first hack was announced in September, Verizon said it would "evaluate" its potential impact on the deal.
On Wednesday, Verizon said in a statement to The Associated Press that it would review the "new development before reaching any final conclusions."  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Science

Crime, Law and Justice

Rebecca Hersher

Author

The company says the intruders accessed names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and even security questions. This is the second major hack announced by Yahoo in less than three months.

Yahoo says hackers stole information from over 1 billion accounts

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