The massive data breach that Yahoo! confirmed to the world last week is claimed by the company to have been carried out by a “state-sponsored actor” in 2014. According to this claim the accounts of at least 500 Million Yahoo users were exposed. However Yahoo has downplayed a mega data breach and trying to hide it’s own security blunder
The stolen information from at least 500 million users were exposed which includes names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and, in some cases, un-encrypted security questions and answers.
Yahoo hasn’t yet released the evidence on which it based the link to a nation state. The company last week said the investigation is continuing. A lengthy report published by the New York Times seemingly explains that the company did not reset the passwords of its users after the breach due to the decisions made by Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer.
If Yahoo had reset the passwords of its affected users, proper security measures would have been taken by users to protect their personal data from hackers. Already, this is believed to be one of the biggest in history, and the company is still trying to negotiate a deal to sell its core business to Verizon for $4.8 Billion. Yahoo! has yet to respond to the recent revelation by the insider.