FYI! – Your! hacked! Yahoo! account! is! worth! $0.0003!

The hacked database containing the account details of more than one billion Yahoo! users is reportedly being sold for a meager $300,000.

This according to a report by the New York Times, which spoke with researchers at US computer security biz InforArmor. Those eggheads claim to have knowledge of at least three groups – two known spammers and one possible "espionage" group – that have paid out the six-figure sum to obtain the massive leaked database of Yahoo! accounts.

Arizona-based InfoArmor also claims it had obtained a copy of the swiped records months ago, but did not report it to Yahoo! over fears the Purple Palace would dismiss or seek to bury the incident, least it interfere with the looming $4.8bn Verizon merger.

Instead, InfoArmor told the NYT that it provided reports to crimefighters in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and the EU.

The one-billion-account Yahoo! security breach was made public earlier this month when the trouble web giant admitted that in 2013 hackers had been able to pilfer user data. The one-time search goliath said the network intrusion, which was not connected to the separate theft of 500 million user accounts by another hacking group, was discovered by an internal team.

This latest breach further throws the proposed acquisition of Yahoo! by Verizon into question. The US telco was already said to be seeking a discount on the $4.8bn acquisition price, and with Yahoo!'s latest mishap, speculation is that Verizon could walk away from the deal entirely over fears Yahoo!'s value will never recover. ®