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ARTICLE · 17 NOVEMBER 2016

Yahoo Data Breach – Verizon Deal Breaker?

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On September 22, 2016 Yahoo Inc. reported that it suffered a data breach affecting 500 million of its approximately 1 billion user accounts.

CanadaPrivacy
Bernice Karn
Bernice Karn
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On September 22, 2016 Yahoo Inc. reported that it suffered a data breach affecting 500 million of its approximately 1 billion user accounts. According to a press release issued by the company, stolen information "may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers".1 This data breach apparently occurred in late 2014 and Yahoo believes it was perpetrated by a "state-sponsored actor".  

Besides the inevitable regulatory and class action fallout, what makes this interesting from a legal perspective is that Yahoo happens to be in the throes of a 4.8-billion (U.S.) asset acquisition by Verizon, which is scheduled to close by early next year.2 According to The Globe & Mail, Verizon was notified of the breach in the two days prior to Thursday's announcement.  We suspect that this cyberbreach incident will have a significant

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