Yahoo announced Tuesday that a data breach from 2013 was more widespread than originally reported, impacting all 3 billion accounts that existed.
“Based on an analysis of the information with the assistance of outside forensic experts, Yahoo has determined that all accounts that existed at the time of the August 2013 theft were likely affected,” Yahoo’s Account Security Update page says.
Originally when the security breach was disclosed in December 2016, estimates suggested 1 billion accounts were impacted. This new information arrives four months following Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo.
The security breach allowed hackers to obtain email addresses, passwords, birthdates, telephone numbers, among other personal information.
Yahoo said that when it previously announced the breach, it notified all affected users to change their passwords and invalidated unencrypted security questions associated with those accounts. The company said Tuesday that it is now reaching out to all the users who weren’t previously notified.
This breach has been the largest hacking incident in history, based on the number of users impacted.
Verizon is combining Yahoo with AOL and will subsequently be called Oath.
