Yahoo hackers leak passwords

Yahoo is probing an apparent security breach which has led to over 450,000 email addresses and passwords being leaked online, a media report said Thursday.

Hackers belonging to a group called D33Ds Company posted the account information on a public website in what they described as "a wake-up call".

The attackers did not specify which Yahoo site the user data had been obtained from but the TrustedSec blog suggested that the targeted site was Yahoo Voice, a voice-over-IP service bought by Yahoo in 2010, Shane Richmond, head of technology (editorial), wrote in The Telegraph.

The service was called Associated Content but Yahoo rebranded it as Yahoo Voices, the newspaper said.

The risk extends beyond that site, however, as those whose email addresses and passwords may have used the same login details on other websites.

David Emm, senior security researcher at Kaspersky, said: "Unfortunately, many people use the same password for multiple online accounts. This brings with it the risk that a compromise of one account puts all their accounts at risk.

In a message posted along with the leaked data, the hackers said: "We hope that the parties responsible for managing the security of this subdomain will take this as a wake-up call, and not as a threat."