Yahoo a victim of a state-sponsored hack
Hacks releasing personal data are far too common, but the scale of the one carried out on Yahoo may be the catalyst for organisations and government to instigate real, significant change.
This data leak has been dubbed the biggest release of personal information since the internet began.US Senator Mark Warner said its scale ‘puts it among the largest on record’.
Details released included names, passwords, email addresses, phone numbers and security questions. The hack actually took place in 2014, although it was only confirmed by Yahoo last night, as presumably the company was unaware of the hack and exactly what details were released until recently – as is often the case with data breaches.
It is yet again an example of how organisations are woefully outgunned and in some cases unprepared for the continuing onslaught of cyber threats, as Jacob Ginsberg, senior director at Echoworx, suggests.
