Yahoo Breach: Senators Demand Answers
September 27 2016 - 6:15PM
Dow Jones News
By Robert McMillan
Six Democratic U.S. senators have written to Yahoo Inc. Chief
Executive Marissa Mayer, seeking answers to questions about the
company's 500-million-account data breach, thought to be the
largest ever.
The letter, sent Tuesday, notes that Yahoo said the breach
occurred in late 2014, yet was only disclosed last week. "That
means millions of Americans' data may have been compromised for two
years," the senators wrote. "This is unacceptable."
"We have received the letter and will work to respond in a
timely and appropriate manner," a Yahoo spokesman said Tuesday in
an email message.
Yahoo said last week that the 2014 breach was carried out by
"state-sponsored" actors, but that the company was unaware of the
incident until this year. On Friday, The Wall Street Journal
reported that Yahoo first notified the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in fall 2014, after 30 to 40 accounts had been
compromised, in a breach the company linked to Russian hackers.
At the time, company executives didn't believe that the breach
was widespread and notified only the affected users, according to a
person familiar with the matter.
Although it is not uncommon for consumers to be notified years
after a breach, the delay can create problems for consumers and
diminish the intended effects of breach-notification laws, said
Michael Overly, an intellectual-property lawyer with Foley &
Lardner LLP.
"If the time delay between breach and the company learning about
it is two years," Mr. Overly said, "the horse has not only escaped
the barn, but the barn has fallen from disuse."
In their letter, the senators ask Ms. Mayer for a timeline
detailing when and how Yahoo learned of the breach, a list of
affected services and an explanation for how the incident could
have gone undetected for so long. They also ask for a briefing by
Yahoo so they can understand how Yahoo and law enforcement
investigated the incident and how the company intends to protect
consumers in the future.
The signers are Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Al Franken of
Minnesota, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of
Connecticut, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Edward J. Markey of
Massachusetts.
The internet company said last week it started investigating the
breach in July, around the time it said it would sell its core
assets to Verizon Communications Inc. for $4.8 billion . In a Sept.
9 proxy statement related to the deal, Yahoo said it wasn't aware
of any "security breaches" or "loss, theft, unauthorized access or
acquisition" of user data.
Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 27, 2016 18:00 ET (22:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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