After two record breaking breach confessions from Yahoo! this year it’s likely they will face legal action, but is suing a good way to get companies to wake-up to security?
In light of the new admission by Yahoo! that they suffered a data breach which compromised 1 billion users’ accounts back in 2013, it’s worth remembering that they already confessed to a breach compromising 500 million in 2014.
The 2014 Yahoo! data breach in which 500 million Yahoo! users had personal details taken by hackers, including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers, dates of birth and encrypted passwords.
Yahoo! could now be facing being sued by customers for this massive data breach. Mark James, ESET IT Security Specialist, looks into whether the threat of Civil Litigation might be a way to get companies to secure themselves better.
“It does seem to the general public that breaches happen all too often.
“Your data is lost or stolen and the hacked company are really sorry; they have reviewed their security procedures, and will do all they can to not let it happen again. But what exactly is that?
“Often any fines levied against that company are insignificant when you look at their financial turnover, in many cases its seems cheaper to do the minimum, take the hit and mop up the damage.
“Our data has become a tradeable commodity, and sadly the fines and repercussions do not seem enough of a deterrent, so we have to question will Civil Litigation make the difference?
“Maybe. The problem will be proving they were negligent, but either way something needs to be done to step up the game of securing our data.”
Was your data in either of the breaches? Do you think you’ll pursue legal action against Yahoo? Let us know on Twitter @ESETUK
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