Yahoo! Inc.is being accused in lawsuits of failing to secure customer data after the company said the personal information of at least 500 million users was stolen in a 2014 hack.
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“We have had a number of people approach us who had things accessed such as their tax accounts or credit cards, and they couldn’t figure out how people were getting into those”, Casey told CNNMoney.
The company says the stolen information does not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information, which is not stored in the system that was targeted.
Yahoo hasn’t revealed the evidence that led it to blame a “state-sponsored actor” for the latest attack, which the Sunnyvale company said occurred two years ago and was discovered only recently.
The information that was stolen includes usernames, email addresses, birthdays, phone numbers, and security questions.
Ronald Schwartz, a NY resident, sued on behalf of all Yahoo users in the United States whose personal information was compromised.
Users should also keep track of their other accounts that have the same password as their Yahoo account.
Yahoo says it is notifying potentially affected users of the attack by email.
Spark is now reminding all its customers to change their password and security questions for their Xtra account and any other account which they used the same or similar information. Yahoo is also recommending that users who haven’t changed their passwords since 2014 do so.
They published their report a week after Verizon announced it would buy Yahoo – a sale which is still pending.
In the wake of Yahoo’s admission, it said: “We will evaluate as the investigation continues through the lens of overall Verizon interests, including consumers, customers, shareholders and related communities”.
When asked for comment, a Yahoo spokesman pointed out law enforcement is investigating the theft of data it had disclosed Thursday.
Mr Schwartz’s lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims that Yahoo demonstrated “reckless disregard for the security of its users’ personal information that it promised to protect”.
The attack on Yahoo was unprecedented in size, more than triple other large attacks on sites such as eBay Inc (EBAY.O), and it comes to light at a hard time for Yahoo.
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If you have a Yahoo account, hopefully you know by now that your information may have been stolen.
