TheCable

Yahoo says it has discovered a breach of more than one billion user accounts.

According to the multinational technology company, the breach occurred in August 2013.

This new development gives Yahoo the unfortunate distinction of being the victim of the two largest hacks in history.

The breach is believed to be separate and distinct from the theft of data from 500 million accounts that Yahoo reported this September.

The result of this disclosure may potentially threaten the company’s $4.8 billion sale to Verizon.

Stolen data included users’ names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and encrypted passwords.

The passwords are scrambled up with an encryption tool called MD5, which experts say, is possible to crack with some patience. The data also included some security questions and answers, some of which weren’t encrypted.

“Yahoo is notifying potentially affected users and has taken steps to secure their accounts, including requiring users to change their passwords,” the company said in a statement.

“Yahoo has also invalidated unencrypted security questions and answers so that they cannot be used to access an account.”

Yahoo’s stock price began to fall at around 2 p.m. on Wednesday after news of the hack broke.