The biggest computer attack in history is three times higher than previously thought. Verizon has announced that Yahoo’s personal account information theft of 2013 did not affect only 1 billion users, as initially announced last December, but to more than 3 billion. The figure assumes all accounts registered with the popular digital service provider at the time of the attack.
Anyone with a Yahoo account in 2013, therefore, has been the victim of theft of your information, including the password used to protect your account. This data, however, was stored in encrypted form on the server.
Oath, the Verizon subsidiary that has joined the different services of Yahoo after acquiring most of the company’s assets four months ago, says it has not been aware of the truth until a few days ago and thanks to the help from an external team with whom it works on the case.
Verizon warned all users of the newly acquired Yahoo of the need to change their password, even if they had not been affected and therefore will not issue a similar recommendation this time. However, it is advisable for all users to change the access password not only in the services that were part of Yahoo, such as the Yahoo Mail e-mail service or the popular Flickr photo web, but also in other services which would have used the same password. The hackers would not have stolen passwords or data on bank accounts or credit cards. The company said it will continue to work closely with the law enforcement authorities on the matter.
Following the original announcement of the attack in December, Verizon achieved an adjustment to Yahoo’s purchase price, which was acquired only a few months earlier. The telecom operator ended up paying $4.45 billion instead of the $4.9 billion originally forecast.
According to the European press, the next in the list of “victims” is McDonald’s, which will have to pay $ 500 million in taxes. Because of loopholes in tax legislation that allow US corporations to withdraw from payments, the critic of the recent past was subjected to the head of the EC, Jean-Claude Juncker . It turned out that 340 companies transferred part of their income to Luxembourg and “saved” on taxes.
In other news, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is determined to fight against Amazon and Apple for their tax practices in Europe. Amazon is liable for tax arrears underpaid in Luxembourg. The EC began trial of Amazon.com Inc in 2014, suspecting that since 2003, it was actually evading payment of taxes. The investigation showed that payment of royalties to the parent company, thanks to Luxembourg law, allowed not to pay huge sums to the EU budget.
