Russian Hack

On Wednesday, March 15th, Russian agents are said to have hacked over 50 million Yahoo accounts. The hack had started around January and it just accessed the accounts yesterday. They stole data that included names, email addresses, and passwords but not financial information, Yahoo says.

The Russian government used the information obtained by the intelligence officers and two other men to spy on a range of targets, from White House and military officials to executives at banks, two American cloud computing companies, an airline, and even a gambling regulator in Nevada. The stolen data was also used to spy on Russian government officials and business executives, federal prosecutors said.

It remains unclear why Yahoo users were not informed about the hack during that time. An internal investigation by the company’s board found that some senior executives and information security personnel were aware of the breach shortly after it occurred but “failed to properly comprehend or investigate” the situation. Two weeks ago, the company’s top lawyer, Ronald S. Bell, resigned over an episode, and its chief executive, Marissa Mayer, lost her 2016 bonus and 2017 stock compensation.