SEC fines Yahoo $35 million for two years' secrecy about 2014 data breach

The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced in April 2018 that it would fine Altaba, formerly known as Yahoo, $35 million for failing to disclose its massive 2014 data breach. Yahoo did not notify the hundreds of millions of customers until the end of 2016, when it was closing its acquisition by Verizon, even though the SEC found that the company knew within days that Russian hackers had stolen their user names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, encrypted passwords, and the secondary security questions and answers. The SEC found that Yahoo failed to include the breach in quarterly and annual reports filed during that two-year period even though the information was material to investors. 

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-71

Writer: SEC

Publication: SEC