Yahoo has admitted that previous estimates of the number of users affected by a data breach that occurred back in 2013 were grossly inaccurate. And, boy, do we mean grossly. Back in December 2016, the company disclosed that 1 billion accounts had been compromised by a hack that occurred three years prior. This new report states that the actual figure was a whopping 3 billion. Yes, with a B.
The news was announced through a press release by Yahoo’s new parent company Oath, which stated that “[s]ubsequent to Yahoo’s acquisition by Verizon, and during integration, the company recently obtained new intelligence and now believes, following an investigation with the assistance of outside forensic experts, that all Yahoo user accounts were affected by the August 2013 theft.”
The account information compromised in the 2013 breach included telephone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, encrypted passwords, and more. Yahoo will be notifying affected users by email and has set up a FAQ page for those who would like to know more about the announcement.
