Yahoo data is ALREADY being flogged on the dark web for a shockingly small sum – and foreign spies might have paid for it
The fallout from the Yahoo data breach is emerging and it is truly terrifying
YAHOO account holders’ personal information is being sold by Eastern European crooks on the Dark Web for £300,000-a-pop, according to cyber boffs.
The tech giant yesterday revealed more than one billion phone numbers and passwords had been stolen in a massive cyber-attack.
It turns out that the hacked database, which actually took place in 2013 but the extent of which only just came to light, has been sold on several times.
And one cunning cyber-sleuth this week claimed to have spotted the stolen data going for just £300,000 on the Dark Web.
Andrew Komarov, chief intelligence officer at cybersecurity firm InfoArmor, said a set of Eastern European sold the database containing "up to a billion" Yahoo accounts at least three times for around £300,000 each.
Foreign spies may have nabbed some of the data at the bargain price, Mr Komarov added.
He said one customer asked for a list of 10 US and foreign government officials to prove it was authentic before handing over any money.
The sum is small when you consider that internet provider TalkTalk was fined £60million when a 17-year-old Brit schoolboy hacked 160,000 customers’ data.
Analysts are already putting bets on that it will lose the tech company £3.8billion ($4.8billion) expected from a looming Verizon buyout.
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It’s still unclear whether payment and bank account information was nabbed too.
At least eight million Brits are believed to have been caught up in the scandal.
You can find out if you were affected by the Yahoo cyber hack here.
A Yahoo spokesperson said on Thursday: “Based on further analysis of this data by the forensic experts, we believe an unauthorised third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts.
“We have not been able to identify the intrusion associated with this theft.”
Yahoo admitted that the hacker forged cookies – tiny files that are stored on your computer every time you visit a website to record data.
This meant that they could access emails without needing a password and could have been tracking and stealing Yahoo account holders’ personal information since.
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