Yahoo: How do state hackers break in?
Yahoo has revealed that login details for up to one billion accounts have gone missing. The massive breach was discovered while it investigated a separate attack that had compromised data on about 500 million accounts. Yahoo said it suspected a state-sponsored attacker was involved in both thefts.
How can it be sure? - Perhaps because information about the breach came from intelligence agencies that monitor the groups and military units that conduct these kinds of operations. Analysis of the methods and tools the attackers used as well as their ultimate targets probably betrayed who was ultimately behind it. Pete Barbour, head of the incident response at security firm Context-IS, acknowledged that pinning the blame on someone for an attack is tricky but said nation-state operations have a "distinctive character" that becomes obvious during investigation. "You know it when you see it,