Yahoo Hit With $35 Million USD Fine Over 2014 Data Breach
The company hid the breach from investors and customers.
Yahoo, now known as Altaba, has been given a huge fine due to a 2014 data breach. The issue, which affected 500 million users, was hidden by the company until it was eventually uncovered in late 2016. The company received the fine for failing to inform anyone of the breach and agreed to pay the SEC $35 million USD. Altaba itself consists of the parts of Yahoo that didn’t merge with Verizon to become Oath.
Yahoo originally found out about the Russian hackers who got hold of personal data in December 2014. The information included usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, encrypted passwords and security questions. However senior management didn’t investigate the incident or disclose it to investors or affected users, with the breach only becoming known during an acquisition deal.
In related news, Instagram will follow Facebook and allow users to download their old data.
