Yahoo on Thursday reported the largest data breach in history which will affect at least 500 million user accounts. Being cited as one of the largest, the web giant called on customers to change their passwords and institute other protective measures.
This breach can have huge negative impacts on the its deal with Verizon as Yahoo had
this summer agreed to sell its core business for $4.8 billion to telecommunications giant Verizon in a deal now clouded by news of the massive breach. Verizon said it learned of the incident only “within the last two days.”
Companies usually take months or even years to report breaches and if they ever do, they hold information back from customers, business partners and even potential new owners of a company.
“The dark cloud this casts will be very long and will likely impact the merger agreement,” Jeff Kagan, a Georgia-based telecommunications industry analyst, said in an email. “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.”
It is being said that Yahoo learned of the incident in July, the same month it announced its deal with Verizon, (NDTV). But Yahoo has refused to say whether it learned of the hack before or after that deal was announced.
Yahoo revealed the breach after recode, a news site focusing on Silicon Valley, reported Thursday morning that the ailing tech giant would confirm a data breach affecting hundreds of millions of accounts. Yahoo reported that the intrusion apparently began in 2014. With it affecting more that 500 million accounts, this could be the largest breach on record.
