Yahoo! has reported the theft of 400,000 user names and passwords to access its own site as well as those of other companies, saying that hackers had taken advantage of a security vulnerability in its computer systems.
Spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek did not identify the other companies whose credentials were stolen or say how many of the stolen log-ins were for Yahoo sites. She said the data was included in “an older file”. “We are fixing the vulnerability that led to the disclosure of this data.”
A hacker group had previously posted hundreds of thousands of user accounts and passwords on a public website.
The theft comes in the wake of a breach reported last month by the business networking service LinkedIn, which resulted in the release of some 6.4 million member passwords. – (Reuters)