Yahoo Data Breach Could Result In Lawsuits

Yahoo, which is reeling from a massive data breach, is reportedly facing a class-action lawsuit over it.

According to a report, the company is facing two lawsuits, both filed in the U.S. District Court, since the massive breach was announced.

“For Yahoo to lay the blame on state-sponsored entities for this data breach seems like nothing more than a PR stunt crafted to help the company avoid additional embarrassment and reputational damage,” said Danny Maher, CTO from U.K.-based data security company HANDD Business Solutions, in the report. “Nobody wants to admit that their data may have been stolen by a 16-year-old hacker from his garden shed. In fact, InfoArmour, a firm who sampled some of the stolen data with The Wall Street Journal, recently questioned Yahoo’s claims of a state-sponsored attack by suggesting all the evidence points towards a known criminal gang.”

The report went on to note that the breach and the subsequent lawsuits could derail its deal to sell its core business to Verizon. The report cited sources as saying the deal could be “put in jeopardy.” The report pointed to Verizon’s statement in which it said: “We will evaluate as the investigation continues through the lens of overall Verizon interests, including consumers, customers, shareholders and related communities.”

Maher went on to note that he is not sure why Yahoo delayed the announcement by two years, arguing: “It’s not against the law, but it is certainly unethical. Did they purposely withhold knowledge of the hack, or even more alarmingly, did they only just find out about it? These are awkward questions for which Marissa Meyer and her team will be hard at work trying to answer.”

This story demonstrates why organizations need to implement tighter security measures and be vigilant of their data security policies, he said.

Pymnts, Thursday, October 6, 2016

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