Following the breach, Yahoo required all of its customers to reset their passwords and said that it believes hackers responsible for the previous breach had also accessed the company’s proprietary code to learn how to forge “cookies” that would allow hackers to access an account without a password. Furthermore, stolen information “may have included” names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
Yahoo said it had not yet identified the intrusion that led to the massive data theft and noted that payment-card data and bank account information were not stored in the system the company believes was affected.
Moreover, according to Reuters, news of that attack prompted Verizon Communication to say in October 2016 that it might withdraw from an agreement to buy Yahoos core internet business for USD 4.83 billion.
Referring to the deal with Verizon Adam Rosen, STEALTHbits Technologies, comments: “This further jeopardizes the fate of Verizon’s announced purchase of Yahoo’s internet business which was originally expected to close Q1 of next year. I suspect at the very least, Verizon will renegotiate for a lower price. It’s not yet known when Yahoo discovered the breach, so it’s unclear if they were aware of it before Verizon agreed to the acquisition. We’re likely to see an SEC investigation if it starts to look like Yahoo’s executives withheld material information, or information that a “reasonable investor” would consider important.”
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