1 bn Yahoo accounts on sale, despite hacking indictments: Media

San Francisco March 18 (IANS) One billion Yahoo accounts are up for sale at $200 000 or best offer a media report has said.

The passwords do not work but the dates of birth telephone numbers and security questions could still be useful to an adept cyberthief a New York Times report said.

US Federal prosecutors unsealed indictments this week against four Russian men including two hackers and two intelligence officers responsible for a 2014 intrusion into Yahoo s systems that affected 500 million user accounts.

Despite this data on one billion accounts - stolen in another attack on the company in 2013 - appeared to remain available on underground hacker forums on Friday the NYT report added.

The authorities were tight-lipped about their investigation of the 2013 attack which is the largest known breach of a private company s computer systems. The 2014 hacking of Yahoo s servers is the second largest.

We re not willing to comment right now if there is a connection between the two investigations Malcolm Palmore who oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation s cybersecurity division in San Francisco said on Wednesday in a brief interview after the government unveiled the indictments.

--IANS
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