- Jul 22, 2014
- 2,525
Joins Equifax and Verizon execs to explain pitiful security
Poor Marissa Mayer. After selling off Yahoo! and floating away on her golden parachute, she must have been looking for a nice rest. But US Congress wanted her to explain how every single user account on the portal got hacked.
On Wednesday, she testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the matter, but reportedly wasn't too keen to attend. The Hill reports that it finally took a subpoena to drag her to the hearing – an account Mayer's personal staff reject, saying Mayer had decided to take part before receiving the subpoena.
In an early morning session Mayer apologized to customers over the hacking attack. Yahoo!originally thought 500 million accounts were compromised, then raised it to a billion, before admitting last month that all three billion accountshosted by the company had been compromised.
"As you know, Yahoo was the victim of criminal, state-sponsored attacks on its systems, resulting in the theft of certain user information," Mayer said, in a deadpan tone. "As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologize to each and every one of our users."
Mayer testified that Yahoo! still doesn't know exactly how the attacks against it worked – although law enforcement claims that it does in its indictments of four people believed to be responsible. The attacks took place in August 2013 but Yahoo! only realized it had been hacked when police showed the company files that had been stolen from its servers.
Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) said that he'd been in similar hearings in the past and asked Mayer if it was even possible to protect data against attack. She said that there was little anyone could do about a state-sponsored attack. Nelson wasn't keen on that response.
Next up, Equifax
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"People back home cannot understand how the CEO of Equifax and the CEO of Yahoo! walked away with $90m, or $27m, or possibly a quarter of a billion dollars in stocks – this is unfathomable to the average person," he said.
"They don't understand, Mr Smith, you harm consumers and you walk away with the amount of money that a small city or county uses for their annual operating budget. It's not fair and it's why this dais has an obligation to make a law and not just drag you back and forth and wave our fingers at you." ®
Poor Marissa Mayer. After selling off Yahoo! and floating away on her golden parachute, she must have been looking for a nice rest. But US Congress wanted her to explain how every single user account on the portal got hacked.
On Wednesday, she testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the matter, but reportedly wasn't too keen to attend. The Hill reports that it finally took a subpoena to drag her to the hearing – an account Mayer's personal staff reject, saying Mayer had decided to take part before receiving the subpoena.
In an early morning session Mayer apologized to customers over the hacking attack. Yahoo!originally thought 500 million accounts were compromised, then raised it to a billion, before admitting last month that all three billion accountshosted by the company had been compromised.
"As you know, Yahoo was the victim of criminal, state-sponsored attacks on its systems, resulting in the theft of certain user information," Mayer said, in a deadpan tone. "As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologize to each and every one of our users."
Mayer testified that Yahoo! still doesn't know exactly how the attacks against it worked – although law enforcement claims that it does in its indictments of four people believed to be responsible. The attacks took place in August 2013 but Yahoo! only realized it had been hacked when police showed the company files that had been stolen from its servers.
Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) said that he'd been in similar hearings in the past and asked Mayer if it was even possible to protect data against attack. She said that there was little anyone could do about a state-sponsored attack. Nelson wasn't keen on that response.
Next up, Equifax
...
...
...
"People back home cannot understand how the CEO of Equifax and the CEO of Yahoo! walked away with $90m, or $27m, or possibly a quarter of a billion dollars in stocks – this is unfathomable to the average person," he said.
"They don't understand, Mr Smith, you harm consumers and you walk away with the amount of money that a small city or county uses for their annual operating budget. It's not fair and it's why this dais has an obligation to make a law and not just drag you back and forth and wave our fingers at you." ®
