back to article Biz! Formerly! Known! As! Yahoo! Settles! Data! Breach! Cases! To! The! Tune! Of! $47m!

The company formerly known as Yahoo! is close to settling cases related to the mammoth data security breach it covered up almost four years ago at a cost of around $47m. In its latest SEC filing, Altaba, as Yahoo is now known, said various legal actions spawned by the 2014 attack were nearly resolved. Yahoo! execs knew that …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: 47MIl? not enough

      Nor is the fine going to the right people or people at all for that matter...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    47 mil? not enough

    a slap on the wrist. No wonder most businesses don't give a crap about protecting user data. There's no profit in it (an apparently, getting caught doesn't matter much either).

    m2¢

    1. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: 47 mil? not enough

      I've worked with many clients that will just pay the fine each time rather than actually fixing anything.

      One insurance client was particularly egregious about it. They split the company into 3 pieces: The top organization the name, equipment, liabilities for underwriting policies, etc. A middle, regional layer that held the actual customer data. Then the bottom layer was the 'independent clubs' that actually interacted with the customer and handled the day-to-day stuff. The local 'clubs' would license logos and trademarked items from the upper company then contract through the middle layer for IT services and resell the middle company's insurance policies (underwritten by the top org).

      It was designed this way so that the middle organization could be run as cheaply as possible and just pay fines for not complying with SOx, PCI/DSS, etc until they got shut down by the Feds. At that point they company would be liquidated, and assets (insurance polices, customer data) sold to a new organization that has just started up the day before and be staffed by all the former workers of the old company using the same equipment and same buildings as before. So essentially, they just change the logos and slightly change the name of the middle organization, and since the clubs are using the upper company's name and logos, no one outside the scheme even notice this change. So they get to keep on making massive profits while not doing a damned thing to actually protect customer data.

  3. beep54

    Altaba?

    It is truly hard to believe that Yahoo! still exists even if rebranded. On the other hand, I gather that AOL is still something of a thing, so....

    1. ratfox
      Boffin

      Re: Altaba?

      This is actually not Yahoo. This is a company to which Yahoo used to belong, before it was sold to Verizon. Yahoo.com is still up, but is independent from Altaba.

      1. beep54

        Re: Altaba?

        Ah. Thank you. So now I can simply say that it is hard to believe that yahoo.com still exists.

      2. onefang

        Re: Altaba?

        "This is actually not Yahoo. This is a company to which Yahoo used to belong, before it was sold to Verizon."

        There goes my plan to suggest it should be A!taba.

  4. Wolfclaw

    Wiat for the next breach, that contains EU citizen data, then you'll see a slapping worth hundreds of millions if GDPR regs are fully enforced !

    1. Halcin

      If

      Wiat for the next breach, that contains EU citizen data, then you'll see a slapping worth hundreds of millions if GDPR regs are fully enforced !

      If

      I an't holding my breath.

    2. Waseem Alkurdi

      I'm taking bets here.

      (Won't happen.)

      1. Grikath

        Oh.. it will... But I'd bet the remains of Yahoo! will be about the last to hit that particular stage, given that its footprint in Europe has always been negligible at best.

        Now if you're talking Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, several bank and insurance conglomerates .... Only a matter of time...

  5. GrapeBunch

    Seems like a modest sum, considering the scale and blatancy of the breach. It does nothing to challenge my working theory that "lawyers are happy, as long as they get paid."

    How many end users receive dosh, how much, and is it in addition to losses directly attributable to the breach?

  6. Nick Kew

    Is it me?

    Am I totally out of touch never having heard of "Altaba" before today?

    Are they trying to confuse us with the names of successful companies? If it's not Alibaba, must be Alphabet. No, it's not Alphabet, must be Alibaba. Oh, erm, Alright, nevermind, Al-wossname, must be google ... erm ... wot woz the Chinese google again ... erm ...

    1. Waseem Alkurdi
      Thumb Up

      Re: Is it me?

      Am I totally out of touch never having heard of "Altaba" before today?

      Make that two of us.

      1. onefang

        Re: Is it me?

        That's why they change their names, the stink stays associated with the old name. But this is an entirely different branding, er I mean company, so no stink.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Didja think we'd get rid of the exclaims just 'cos you're Altaba now?

    sigh....

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Didja think we'd get rid of the exclaims just 'cos you're Altaba now?

      Not just exclaims, but slightly tilted exclaims

    2. Florida1920

      Re: Didja think we'd get rid of the exclaims just 'cos you're Altaba now?

      Well, I was hoping.

    3. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: Didja think we'd get rid of the exclaims just 'cos you're Altaba now?

      Fuck! 'em!

      They! deserve! it! for! being! such! pretentious! twats! about! their! branding!

      Even! if! it! was! only! once!

  8. Jay Lenovo
    Unhappy

    No really, this stuff was worth billions

    Based on the number of affected users, it seems cover-up fines can be quite affordable.

    Verizon paid 4.48 billion to own information potentially made public for just 47 mill.

    The new owners should demand the fine to be made larger, just to save face.

  9. ken jay

    so let me get this right.

    they steal our data and cause it to be misused.

    they get fined

    and the government takes every penny because they dont give a flying crap about the peasants

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like