The biggest security breach in history had been wreaked on Yahoo, according to recent revelation. The hack was said to have been discovered in August 2013, of which activities dated back to three-years. About 1 billion user accounts; at least 500 million users could have been affected.
“Simply everyone that has a Yahoo account should be concerned,” Robert Siciliano, a US-based security analyst, told Al Jazeera. “Once a criminal hacker has access to your email, that is a portal to reset the passwords for all of your critical accounts, which that Yahoo account is associated with.”
Both lapses occurred during the reign of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, a once-lauded leader who found herself unable to turn around the company in the four years since her arrival. Earlier this year, Yahoo agreed to sell its digital operations to Verizon Communications for $4.8bn – a deal that may now be imperiled by the hacking revelations.
Yahoo didn’t say if it believes the same hacker might have pulled off two separate attacks. The Sunnyvale, California, company blamed the late 2014 attack on a hacker affiliated with an unidentified foreign government, but said it hasn’t been able to identify the source behind the 2013 intrusion.