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New revelations unlikely to make Verizon feel any better about what it’s paying $4.8 billion for.
Yahoo was aware in late 2014 of a state-backed attack on its network, which contradicts what the company said when Verizon agreed to acquire it for $4.83 billion.
In an SEC filing last Thursday, Yahoo said that when a hacker in July claimed to have obtained certain Yahoo user data, it intensified an ongoing review into its network and data security, "including a review of prior access to the company’s network by a state-sponsored actor that the company had identified in late 2014."
Yahoo said it has assembled a board committee, an independent counsel, and a forensic expert to investigate, "among other things, the scope of knowledge within the company in 2014 and thereafter regarding this access."
The disclosure contradicts an SEC filing in September related to Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo, in which Yahoo stated that there had not been any security breaches involving the "loss, theft, unauthorised access or acquisition, modification, disclosure, corruption or other misuse of any personal data in [the] seller’s or the business subsidiaries’ possession."
Later that same month, Yahoo confirmed that the personal information – including names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, encrypted passwords, and in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers – of some 500 million members had been illegally accessed.
Yahoo told Verizon about the hack just days before disclosing it to the public.
Sources cited by the New York Post in October claimed Verizon wants a $1 billion discount off the Yahoo deal, because the attack had a material impact on Yahoo’s value.
If indeed Verizon is pushing for a discount, its case for one just got a lot stronger.
