Yahoo investigating exposure of 400,000 passwords

Web giant Yahoo has confirmed it is investigating a breach of its system which may have exposed 450,000 user IDs.US security firm Trustedsec said the attack appeared to have originated from servers connected to Yahoo Voices, a user-generated section of the site.

It said that hacking group D33DS had claimed to be behind the attack.

Hours after the attack came to light, Yahoo had not put a warning on its site.

In a statement Yahoo said: "We confirm that an older file from Yahoo Contributor Network... containing approximately 450,000 Yahoo and other company users' names and passwords was compromised yesterday.

"Of these, less than 5% of the Yahoo accounts had valid passwords. We are taking immediate action by fixing the vulnerability that led to the disclosure of this data, changing the passwords of the affected Yahoo users and notifying the companies whose users accounts may have been compromised."

According to US security firm Trustedsec, the compromised passwords were associated with a variety of email addresses including those from yahoo.com, gmail.com and aol.com.

It said that hackers used a well-established technique known as SQL injection to extract the sensitive information from the database.

"The most alarming part of the entire story was the fact that the passwords were stored entirely unencrypted," the security firm said in its blog.

Initial analysis by another security firm Imperva suggested that the compromised database might have contained some private data as well including names, addresses including postcode, phone numbers and dates of birth.

Reset passwords

Meanwhile social network Formspring has disabled nearly 30 million passwords following a separate attack.

It said it was a precautionary move after 420,000 passwords showed up on a security forum.

Formspring, which launched in 2009 as a crowd-powered question-and-answer site, has asked users to reset their passwords.

In a blog post it confirmed that a breach had occurred after someone hacked into one of the San Francisco-based company's servers.

A spokeswoman said it had been alerted on Monday that some 420,000 encrypted passwords had shown up on a security forum which she refused to name because she did not want to draw attention to it.

Encrypted passwords aren't immediately useable, although they can sometimes be decoded by a clever attacker.

Saturday, July 14, 2012 | 0 comments | Read More

Facebook and Yahoo settle patent and form ad alliance

Yahoo and Facebook have settled their patent row and formed an advertising alliance.

 Yahoo had sued the social network in March claiming 10 of its intellectual properties had been infringed.

 Facebook subsequently bought 750 patents from IBM and counter-sued.

 It later bought hundreds more patents from Microsoft to strengthen its defence.

 The firms said they would now cross-license innovations from each other and collaborate on future projects.

 Yahoo's u-turn

 The report which broke the news ahead of the official announcement - reported that Yahoo's interim chief executive Ross Levinsohn had begun moves to resolve the dispute immediately after taking over from his ousted predecessor.

 It added that Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg soon became involved in the resulting negotiations.

 A press release quoted Mr Levinsohn as saying: "We are excited to develop a deeper partnership with Facebook, and I'm grateful to Sheryl and her team for working hard together with our team to develop this dynamic agreement... Combining the premium content and reach of Yahoo as the world's leading digital media company with Facebook provides branded advertisers with unmatched opportunity.

" Ms Sandberg added: "Yahoo's new leaders are driven by a renewed focus on innovation and providing great products to users.

 Together, we can provide users with engaging social experiences while creating value for marketers.

" Counting the cost The move may help secure Yahoo's top job for Mr Levinsohn.

 He had been competing for the role against Hulu's boss Jason Kilar.

 But, the video streaming service announced Mr Kilar had "graciously declined" to be considered for the role shortly after news of the patent agreement leaked.

 Although no money appears to have exchanged hands, the row has still proven to be expensive.

 Facebook had paid Microsoft $550m (£355m) to buy 650 patents and license a further 275. 

It has not disclosed the cost of its deal with IBM, although the tech site Cnet has suggested the sum was $83m.

Friday, July 06, 2012 | 0 comments | Read More

Yahoo Finds Delicious Buyer

Yahoo is selling off its delicious social bookmarking site, after nearly five years of ownership.

Technology startup AVOS, founded by YouTube founders, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, is acquiring delicious for an undisclosed sum from Yahoo. Hurley and Chen sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in October of 2006.

"We spoke with numerous parties interested in acquiring the site, and chose Chad and Steve based on their passion and unique vision for Delicious,” said John Matheny, SVP of Communications and Communities at Yahoo in a statement.

AVOS has pledged to help grow and expand delicious to enable users to, "discover the web's tastiest content."

Yahoo acquired delicious (originally known as del.icio.us) in December of 2005. In recent years, Yahoo has struggled with keeping delicious open and announced their intention to find a new owner for the site in late 2010.

Yahoo sent out notices to delicious users yesterday notifying them of the new ownership change."To continue using Delicious, you must agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to AVOS," Yahoo stated in its email to users.

 "After a transition period and after your bookmarks are transferred, you will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy policy."

Yahoo added that Delicious in its current form will be available until approximately July 2011. If a user does not transfer their bookmarks to AVOS before then, Yahoo warns that the users will no longer be able to use their existing Delicious accounts and will not have access to your existing bookmarks or account information.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 | 0 comments | Read More