Yahoo Looking to Determine If Hacker Has Access to User Accounts
November 09 2016 - 6:34PM
Dow Jones News
By Robert McMillan
Yahoo Inc. is evaluating whether an unidentified hacker has
access to its user account data, following a 2014 hack that
resulted in the theft of more than 500 million user account
records.
In a regulatory filing Wednesday, Yahoo said law-enforcement
authorities on Monday "began sharing certain data that they
indicated was provided by a hacker who claimed the information was
Yahoo user account data." Yahoo said it would "analyze and
investigate the hacker's claim."
A company spokesman declined to elaborate, adding, "We did just
receive the file and haven't yet completed the analysis."
The data could shed some light on what may be the largest theft
of consumer data ever. Yahoo has said previously that it believes
its networks were compromised in late 2014 by "state-sponsored"
hackers who stole names, email addresses, telephone numbers and
dates of birth of more than 500 million users. But
information-security firm InfoArmor Inc. later said the data had
been stolen by criminals, rather than a state-sponsored group.
An InfoArmor spokesman said Wednesday the company had shared its
data with law enforcement.
In the Wednesday filing, Yahoo also said it is investigating
whether the state-sponsored actor responsible for the hack created
special files, called "cookies," that would have allowed it to
bypass Yahoo's security and "access certain users' accounts or
account information."
The company is facing 23 class-action lawsuits following the
hack, the filing said.
Last month Verizon Communications Inc. Chief Executive Lowell
McAdam said that his company is evaluating whether the hack will
have a material impact on Yahoo's business, raising the possibility
that Verizon might renegotiate its $4.8 billion deal to acquire
Yahoo's core business.
A spokesman at the FBI declined to comment.
Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 09, 2016 18:19 ET (23:19 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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