We wrote quite a lengthy piece about The Yahoo Data Breach and in that blog we stated that it was very possible that a couple of things would turn out to be true:
- They knew for a while that this cyber attack had happened. It seemed to far out of the realm of possibility for them not to have known.
- This cyber attack, and lack of communication about it to the world and Verizon meant that their entire deal could be jeopardised.
Well, here’s the latest. It seems that ‘certain employees’ knew about the cyber breach since 2014. As a result Yahoo have decided to setup their own internal investigation team to find out
“the scope of the knowledge within the company in 2014 and thereafter regarding this access,” as well as “the extent to which certain users’ account information had been accessed.”
A lot of Yahoo insiders claimed they weren’t surprised that a data breach had happened. A breach that had compromised users names, phone numbers, passwords and answers to security questions. However, what had shocked everyone, was the number of users that had actually been breached. This number came as an enormous shock to many within Yahoo and the full extent of the breach was only brought to light with all the publicity and their own investigation. Their investigation is claimed to have been prompted in July of this year when a hacker came forward selling swaths of information.
In the reporting of the story by the Washington Post – they pointed out how much of an impact this could have on their deal with Verizon. If the hack hadn’t happened, Yahoo would be finalising a deal which would see its core business being sold to Verizon. Both Yahoo and now Verizon have expressed some concerns with the deal. This hack has had a massive impact on the name Yahoo, and could have a terrible impact on its business, which would lead to an adverse impact on its valuation. In the Washington Post article, they speak with a senior figure at Verizon who said:
“We’re still evaluating the situation and haven’t reached any final conclusions,” Verizon’s chief communications officer, Jim Gerace, told The Post in an email.
As before, all we can do is sit back and report as and when things happen. No doubt this is a terrible time for the Yahoo CEO, Marissa Meyer, who is still in the driving seat.