US judge says Yahoo data breach victims have the right to sue

6 years ago
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-judge-says-yahoo-data-110200602.html

Verizon will now have to deal with any lawsuit filed by victims of the massive breaches Yahoo suffered between 2013 and 2016. US District Judge Lucy Koh has tossed out Yahoo's argument that the people affected by the cyberattacks don't have the standing to sue. While many plaintiffs' cases were dismissed, Koh has ruled that they can change their complaints and pursue some kind of breach of contract or unfair competition claims. According to Reuters, the judge wrote in the 93-page ruling that she came to that decision because all plaintiffs "have alleged a risk of future identity theft."

Further, they had to deal with changing all their passwords and securing new identification information to make sure nobody can steal their identities. When the breach was first announced, Yahoo said customers' "names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers" were stolen. That's why some of the plaintiffs even spent money on identity theft protection services.