Yahoo Inc said it had detected a “coordinated effort” to gain unauthorized access to Yahoo Mail accounts using malicious computer software.<\/p>\n
The company said on its official blog that it believed that the attackers were attempting to access the accounts using credentials that had been obtained from a breach of another company’s user database. It did not identify that company.<\/p>\n
People frequently use the same passwords on multiple accounts, so hackers attempt to use credentials stolen in one breach to break into multiple types of accounts.<\/p>\n
“We have no evidence that they were obtained directly from Yahoo’s systems,” the company said on its blog.<\/p>\n
A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to say how many accounts had been compromised or provide a detailed description, saying that it was the subject of an investigation by federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n
The company said on its blog that it had prompted users to reset passwords to protect their accounts.<\/p>\n
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