Page 24 - AT

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 29 october 2018

Yahoo to pay $50M, other costs for massive security breach

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE Jose, California, court cov-
AP Technology Writer ers about 1 billion of those
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — accounts held by an esti-
Yahoo has agreed to pay mated 200 million people
$50 million in damages and in the U.S. and Israel from
provide two years of free 2012 through 2016.
credit-monitoring services Claims for a portion of the
to 200 million people whose $50 million fund can be
email addresses and other submitted by any eligible
personal information were Yahoo accountholder who
stolen as part of the biggest suffered losses resulting
security breach in history. from the security breach.
The restitution hinges on The costs can include such
federal court approval of things as identity theft, de-
a settlement filed late Mon- layed tax refunds or other
day in a 2-year-old lawsuit problems linked to having
seeking to hold Yahoo ac- had personal information
countable for digital bur- pilfered during the Yahoo
glaries that occurred in break-ins.
2013 and 2014, but weren’t The fund will compensate
disclosed until 2016. Yahoo accountholders at
It adds to the financial fall- a rate of $25 per hour for
out from a security lapse time spent dealing with is-
that provided a mortifying In this July 19, 2016, file photo, flowers bloom in front of a Yahoo sign at the company’s headquarters sues triggered by the secu-
end to Yahoo’s existence in Sunnyvale, Calif. rity breach, according to
as an independent com- Associated Press the preliminary settlement.
pany and former CEO Ma- price by $350 million to re- Altaba Inc., a company mission for Yahoo’s delay Those with documented
rissa Mayer’s six-year reign. flect its tarnished brand that was set up to hold Ya- in disclosing the breach to losses can ask for up to 15
Yahoo revealed the prob- and the specter of other hoo’s investments in Asian investors. hours of lost time, or $375.
lem after it had already ne- potential costs stemming companies and other as- About 3 billion Yahoo ac- Those who can’t docu-
gotiated a $4.83 billion deal from the breach. sets after the sale. Altaba counts were hit by hackers ment losses can file claims
to sell its digital services to Verizon will now pay for one already paid a $35 million that included some linked seeking up to five hours, or
Verizon Communications. It half of the settlement cost, fine imposed by the Secu- to Russia by the FBI . The set- $125, for their time spent
then had to discount that with the other half paid by rities and Exchange Com- tlement reached in a San dealing with the breach.q

Facebook removes Iran-linked accounts spreading false info

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE assigned to weed out fake migration, opposition to
AP Technology Writer accounts set up to distrib- Trump and the polarizing
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — ute false information. Senate hearings that end-
Facebook has purged In this case, that war room ed in Brett Kavanaugh’s
82 pages, accounts and began to detect a pattern confirmation to the U.S. Su-
groups tied to an Iranian of “inauthentic behavior” preme.
effort to exploit its social within the cluster of pages, Facebook did an even
network and Instagram ser- accounts and groups that broader sweep of its service
vice to provoke social strife have now been kicked off in August when it discov-
in the U.S. and the U.K. its service. All were linked ered 652 pages, groups,
The housecleaning an- to Iran, although Face- and accounts linked to
nounced Friday is part of book didn’t find any ties Russia and Iran.
the countermeasures that to that country’s govern- Preventing Facebook from
Facebook put in place ment, Nathaniel Gleicher, becoming a cesspool of
in an attempt to prevent Facebook’s head of cyber false information has be-
abuses similar to those Rus- security policy, wrote in a come a top priority for CEO
sian agents used two years This Feb. 19, 2014, file photo, shows a Facebook app icon on a related blog post. Mark Zuckerberg, who ini-
ago to sway public opin- smartphone in New York. This activity was aimed at tially considered claims
ion ahead of the 2016 U.S. Associated Press “sowing discord” by post- that fake news on his social
presidential election. Park, California, headquar- the U.S on Nov 6. It serves ing content focused on network had swayed the
Facebook has even set up ters ahead of key elections as a command center for politically charged topics 2016 election to be “pretty
a “war room” at its Menlo in Brazil on Sunday and in more than 20,000 workers such as race relations, im- crazy .”q