US securities regulators on Tuesday announced that Altaba will pay a $35 million penalty for not telling them hackers had stolen Yahoo’s “crown jewels.”
The 2014 breach blamed on Russian hackers affected hundreds of millions of Yahoo accounts, with stolen ‘crown jewel’ data including usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, encrypted passwords, and security questions, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
While Yahoo discovered the data breach quickly, it remained mum about it until more than two years later when it was being acquired by telecom giant Verizon Communications, the SEC case maintained.
“Yahoo’s failure to have controls and procedures in place to assess its cyber-disclosure obligations ended up leaving its investors totally in the dark about a massive data breach,” SEC San Francisco regional office director Jina Choi said in a release.
“Public companies should have controls and procedures in place to properly evaluate cyber incidents and disclose material information to investors.”
Although Yahoo is no longer an independent company — its financial holdings are in a separate company now called Altaba — Verizon has continued to operate the Yahoo brand, including its email service and a variety of news and entertainment websites.
Oath includes the Yahoo internet operations along with those of another former internet star, AOL.
In addition to the 2014 breach, a hack the previous year affected all three billion Yahoo user accounts, according to findings disclosed by Verizon after the acquisition.
The US Justice Department charged two Russian intelligence operatives and a pair of hackers over one of the attacks, which had apparent twin goals of espionage and financial gain.
Yahoo, which was once one of the leading internet firms, sold its main online operations to Verizon last year in a deal valued at $4.48 billion.
The purchase price was cut following revelations of the two major data breaches at Yahoo.

More from AFP
- Cyberattacks Target Websites of German Airports, Admin
- Meta Slapped With 5.5 Million Euro Fine for EU Data Breach
- International Arrests Over ‘Criminal’ Crypto Exchange
- France Regulator Raps Apple Over App Store Ads
- More Political Storms for TikTok After US Government Ban
- Meta Hit With 390 Million Euro Fine Over EU Data Breaches
- Facebook Agrees to Pay $725 Million to Settle Privacy Suit
- China’s ByteDance Admits Using TikTok Data to Track Journalists
Latest News
- Critical Vulnerability Impacts Over 120 Lexmark Printers
- BIND Updates Patch High-Severity, Remotely Exploitable DoS Flaws
- Industry Reactions to Hive Ransomware Takedown: Feedback Friday
- Microsoft Urges Customers to Patch Exchange Servers
- Iranian APT Leaks Data From Saudi Arabia Government Under New Persona
- US Reiterates $10 Million Reward Offer After Disruption of Hive Ransomware
- Cyberattacks Target Websites of German Airports, Admin
- US Infiltrates Big Ransomware Gang: ‘We Hacked the Hackers’
