According to CNET, the credentials were stored in plain text and were allegedly taken from a Yahoo subdomain, Yahoo Voices. The group claims to have breached Yahoo's security by using a "union-based SQL injection technique."
Yahoo released this statement to Tech Crunch:
At Yahoo! we take security very seriously and invest heavily in protective measures to ensure the security of our users and their data across all our products. We confirm that an older file from Yahoo! Contributor Network (previously Associated Content) containing approximately 400,000 Yahoo! and other company users names and passwords was stolen yesterday, July 11. Of these, less than 5% of the Yahoo! accounts had valid passwords. We are 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. We apologize to affected users. We encourage users to change their passwords on a regular basis and also familiarize themselves with our online safety tips at security.yahoo.com.
Yahoo may not be the only email service affected. According to Tech Crunch, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, AOL and Comcast emails may also be compromised.
Source: cbsnews
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