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Massive Yahoo Data Breach Revealed, Class Actions Pop Up Next Day

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Los Angeles, CAWith so many data breaches occurring in the last several years, and given the vulnerability of heretofore impenetrable platforms such as hospitals and even the federal government, experts advocate that given the increasing sophistication of hackers it’s only a matter of time before the next one. That leaves most Americans waiting for the other shoe, and the next data breach lawsuit, to drop.

That shoe dropped last week when Yahoo revealed a minimum of 500 million user accounts had been compromised. That’s bad enough. What’s worse, note pundits and consumer advocates, is the revelation the breach happened in 2014 – and we’re just finding out about it now.

There is little doubt that data breach lawsuits and class actions will be flowing from this revelation.

In fact, within a single day of the news of the Yahoo data breach, no fewer than three proposed class action data breach lawsuits were filed in federal courts in California and Illinois.

It was on September 22 that the news arrived with a thud: a data breach that occurred in late 2014 included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and, in some cases, encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers.

“The type of information compromised in this data breach is highly valuable to perpetrators of identity theft,” said attorneys close to the class actions. “Plaintiffs and class members are at risk for identity theft in its myriad forms, potentially for the remainder of their lives.

“Yahoo’s failure to safeguard its users’ very personal, sensitive information, in direct violation of its promises, is utterly unacceptable in this day and age. The fact that a breach of this magnitude went undetected at a tech giant like Yahoo for two years is astounding.”

The named plaintiffs in the three class actions filed September 23 are identified as Jennifer Myers and Ronald Schwartz, who filed their respective lawsuits in California (Myers in the Southern District, and Schwartz in the Northern District), and Christopher Havron, who filed in the Southern District of Illinois.

Given the massive cohort of Yahoo accounts – at least 500 million – it is reasonable to assume that data breach lawsuits will continue to flow, with the potential for compensation and awards for Yahoo class members combining to a massive financial hit for Yahoo at a time when part of the Yahoo structure could be changing.

This past July, communications giant Verizon announced its intent to purchase the core business assets of Yahoo for $4.83 billion.

Acquisition experts note that studying an acquisition target’s cybersecurity strengths, weaknesses, risks and exposures is a normal part of the ramping up to an acquisition. While it has not been suggested that the aforementioned data breach may have been revealed as a result of those investigations, pundits agree that Verizon would be viewing the planned Yahoo acquisition with a new set of eyes, given the potential for additional expenses, and an expectation for legal activity that could affect Verizon down the road, in addition to Yahoo.

The class action data breach lawsuits filed September 23 are Jennifer J. Myers et al. v. Yahoo Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-02391, in the US District Court for the Southern District of California; Ronald Schwartz et al. v. Yahoo Inc., Case No. 5:16-cv-05456, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California; and Christopher Havron et al. v. Yahoo Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-01075, in the US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

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READER COMMENTS

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Yahoo notified me that I was breached. I want to file the proof of claim forms in all Yahoo Data Breach Class Action Lawsuits. I have been receiving a lot of unwanted with spam mail and phone calls from scammers have increased.

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My PC Mac was hacked and I lost all my info for my music company. Don't have a list of everything I lost but I lost my income for 6 mo. till I finally went with a new computer and new email address.

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I have been getting a lot of very nasty unwanted not asked for emails every day. I sent in several notices to yahoo asking for help with not one reply.. these emails are embarrassing and unwanted..IDK what to do. Iv tried emailing some of those people saying I'm not interested and that I'm not gay..but emails continue.

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I have been getting huge amounts of emails from myself to myself. I.E someone is using my name to spam me and my contacts.

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A lot of obvious "junk e-mails" are ending up in my Inbox and some are triplicated and even put into Spam those keep being repeats for days at the time.

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Had a computer 2 yrs old, went out from be hacked. Lost a lot of info, I wanted and needed. Went to check my Experian account, asked me about credit cards I applied for and car loans. Not me at all, trying to buy a home. Haven't applied for any of these and can't even see my credit report online.

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My Spam folder as well as unwanted phone calls have been increasing and its of no fault of my own. I have even gotten a few credit denials that I haven even applied for.

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I am looking for the Firm handling this Class Action Suit, I was hacked constantly during this period and lost 4 computers and endless DATA and SLEEP. IT WAS LIKE BEING RAPED !

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Got alot of spam phone calls and junk email linked to my hotmail..when i didnt want it !!!

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as a consumer of Yahoo! Please include me in this lawsuit if my personal information has been breached as well..

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Looking for an internet/technology lawyer to sue yahoo / flickr , who are refraining to reactivate my account, when I was not active in yahoo mail but was active in flickr.

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