Blumenthal: Massive Yahoo Hack Demonstrates Urgent Need for Congressional Action on Data Breach and Security

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released the following statement today after Yahoo confirmed a massive data breach that has compromised personal information associated with at least 500 million user accounts:

“If Yahoo knew about the hack as early as August, and failed to coordinate with law enforcement, taking this long to confirm the breach is a blatant betrayal of their users’ trust. E-mail accounts can be a trove of sensitive personal information. Asking users to reset their passwords when it first learned of the breach would have been a simple and effective step at mitigating any risk to accounts and protecting consumer data. This breach demonstrates the urgent need for Congress to enact data breach and security legislation – only stiffer enforcement and stringent penalties will make sure companies are properly and promptly notifying consumers when their data has been compromised. As law enforcement and regulators examine this incident, they should investigate whether Yahoo may have concealed its knowledge of this breach in order to artificially bolster its valuation in its pending acquisition by Verizon.” 

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