Boston: In a major security breach web
giant Yahoo Inc. has reported the theft of some
400,000 user names and passwords to access websites including its own
asserting that hackers had taken advantage of a security vulnerability in its
computer systems.
A hacker group proclaiming itself
as D33DS posted online a massive trove of data that was said to be unencrypted
in a file pilfered from the Sunnyvale, California-based internet pioneer
"as a wake-up call not as a threat."
Yahoo spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek
did not responded to a request asking her to identify the companies whose
credentials were stolen. Officials with Google, AOL and Microsoft could not
immediately be reached for comment.
Yahoo did not has disclosed how
many passwords were valid or say how many of the stolen logins were for Yahoo's
sites.
According to media reports Yahoo has
apologized for the breach in a written statement, responding to the latest
piece of bad news for a company that has lost two chief executives in a year
and is struggling to revive stalled revenue growth.
Notably, the theft comes in the
wake of a breach reported last month by the business networking service LinkedIn
which resulted in the release of some 6.4 million member passwords.