Yahoo believed to be victim of massive data breach of 200m users

Whispers are going around the Internet that Yahoo is going to confirm a massive data breach of its service. Earlier this summer, a hacker by the name of "Peace" offered to sell a large swath of user details, which he claims originate from a 2012 data breach at Yahoo.

On a darkweb page, Peace offered the file for three bitcoins, about the equivalent of $1,800. It reportedly contains data from 200 million Yahoo users, including user names, MD5 hashed passwords, personal information like birth dates, and other e-mail addresses.

After news of the hack hit the Internet, Yahoo said it was aware of the claim but refused to say if it was legitimate. Now Recode reports the Internet company is poised to make an announcement this week as anonymous sources claim the incident is real and that the extent of the incursion is really bad.

The hack reflects badly on the record of CEO Marissa Mayer, which failed to turn Yahoo around, and may result in government investigations and legal action. Then there's also the issue of the $4.8 billion sale of Yahoo to Verizon, Recode warns the scale of the liability could urge Verizon to demand a reduction in the price of the transaction:

The announcement, which is expected to come this week, also possible larger implications on the $4.8 billion sale of Yahoo’s core business — which is at the core of this hack — to Verizon. The scale of the liability could be large and bring untold headaches to the new owners. Shareholders are likely to worry that it could lead to an adjustment in the price of the transaction.