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Verizon Shaves $350 Million In Yahoo Purchase After Data Breaches; Over 1 Billion Emails & Passwords Are Compromised

Verizon Shaves $350 Million In Yahoo Purchase After Data Breaches; Over 1 Billion Emails & Passwords Are Compromised

Regin Olimberio

Two major data breaches on Yahoo significantly reduced its price as negotiations for selling the internet business to Verizon continue. Sources revealed that the original asking price for Yahoo is pegged at $4.8 billion, but $350 million was shaved off due to successive data breaches.

Bloomberg reported that apart from cost-reduction, both companies will also share the burden of fixing the effects of data breach even after the deal was closed. If everything goes smoothly and Verizon purchases Yahoo, the latter will be rebranded into Altaba.

To recall, both parties announced the acquisition in July last year and the final schedule for the purchase was scheduled in Q1 of 2017. Since the data breached happened, Yahoo asked for an extension up to Q2 because the company has to reassess its value. It is still unclear whether the $350 million reduction is a product of such reassessment, SC Media said.

Reports indicate that over a billion Yahoo subscribers were affected by the breach. The investigation on who is behind the blunder is still ongoing. All the while, Yahoo is also patching the susceptibility of affected email addresses and passwords.

Government entities were called to take action as well. FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and US Securities and the Exchange Commission sprang up to investigate too.

Meanwhile, Yahoo has issued fresh warnings against "forged cookies." These hacking tools are data strings that are commonly used to access web accounts without the need to re-enter the passwords. However, forged cookies hijack the passwords and unscrupulous hackers are waiting on the other end to extract log-in credentials. Yahoo traced the forged cookies as far as 2015.

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Mike Overly reacted on the notice. Overly said that warnings don't serve the purpose because months or even years have passed since the initial breach. His analogy described the act as "closing the barn door after the horse has escaped."

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