Who’s Responsible for the Yahoo Hack?
The short answer: we still don’t know. Yahoo previously stated that the hack was state-sponsored, meaning that a foreign government is likely responsible. However, InfoArmor, a cybersecurity company based in Arizona, recently claimed that an Eastern European gang was responsible. That gang then sold the stolen information to several clients, one of them being a state-sponsored group. This gang has also been responsible for several other major security breaches, including ones at LinkedIn and Tumblr. Neither answer, however, is definite. The Yahoo hack is still being investigated. It could be a while before there’s a definite answer as to who is responsible, or we may never really know. Unfortunately, cybersecurity breaches can be difficult to track.

Read More: 500 Million Yahoo Accounts Stolen

 The Known Information About the Hack
Yahoo has made plenty of excuses for this breach, one of them being that they couldn’t have prevented the attack. But it has been well documented now that the company didn’t have the right attitude towards security. While cybersecurity threats and large company breaches have become increasingly common, there are measures Yahoo could have taken to make their service more secure.

But this all happened two years ago. How are we just finding out about it now? Earlier this year, an online user bragged about having Yahoo account information for sale. A streak of other clues followed, and the breach was eventually confirmed. A lot of account information was stolen, such as personal information and passwords, and even recovery email addresses.

How to Respond to the Yahoo Cyberattack
This is a big deal. Even if you don’t currently use Yahoo, odds are you at one point had a Yahoo email address (considering how popular it used to be), so it’s a good idea to check on the status of that old account if it’s still around. As with all of your accounts, make sure to practice good password-making habits and to have unique passwords for each account. If you must use security questions, make your answers more complex or misleading. Make sure to be aware of current cyber threats and how you can protect your information. Finally, download PSafe Total and PSafe Total Windows for automatic, 24/7 virus scans on your devices.

“The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers,” Yahoo said in a statement.

Yahoo is urging users to change passwords immediately and are currently working with law enforcement on the breach that has affected 500 million yahoo accounts today alone.

Back in August, a large-scale data breach was rumored to be brewing when a hacker that goes by the name of “Peace” claimed they were selling Yahoo accounts by the millions (200 million to be exact).While Yahoo originally said it was “aware of a claim”, fast-forward 2 months and the hacker’s damage has proven to be far more in counting causing several users wondering how to recover their data.

What to do now:

1. Protect your Yahoo account by resetting your password and security questions
2. Run an Antivirus scan to keep your email account protected from hackers