Yahoo hack leaks 4.5 lakh users' passwords

About 4.5 lakh Yahoo users' email addresses and passwords have been leaked following a security breach but Yahoo said just a small fraction of the stolen passwords were valid.

Many technology websites said hackers belonged to an outfit called D33D Company.

Yahoo said that just only 5 per cent of leaked passwords associated with its account holders were valid.

The group was quoted as saying it had stolen the unencrypted passwords using an SQL injection - the name given to a commonly used attack in which hackers use rogue commands to extract data from vulnerable websites. (With AP inputs)