Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Apologizes For Data Breach, Blames Russians (reuters.com)

Former Yahoo chief executive officer Marissa Mayer apologized today for a pair of massive data breaches at Yahoo and blamed Russian agents on the growing number of incidents involving major U.S. companies. A reader shares a report: "As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologize to each and every one of our users," she told the Senate Commerce Committee, testifying alongside the interim and former CEOs of Equifax and a senior Verizon Communications executive. "Unfortunately, while all our measures helped Yahoo successfully defend against the barrage of attacks by both private and state-sponsored hackers, Russian agents intruded on our systems and stole our users' data."

Comments

My product sucks so

[OffTheLip]

blame Russia. I sense a pattern here.

It's becomming a fad these days ....

[Jerry]

losers blaming Russians for their own incompetency.

RUSSIA

[amiga3D]

It's always a good idea to blame other's for your incompetence. If it wasn't the RUSSIANS it'd be the CHINESE or the INDIANS or some other nation. Cyberspace is like the wild west. Strap on a six shooter and defend yourself.

Re:RUSSIA

[bluefoxlucid]

That's the thing: as a project manager, I look at things we would do differently next time. Factors outside our control are explanations, but not excuses.

It's kind of annoying that, as a Democrat aligned with the Democratic party philosophies, I have to keep pointing out that Hillary wrote a whole god damned book about why she lost the 2016 election--and blamed everyone else. H.R. McMaster had written a book called "Derelection of Duty" for which he was criticized in reviews because he didn't address the superior strategy and military power of the Vietcong; yet he did exactly what he should have done: he addressed everything the American administration did wrong, because we can't expect the Vietcong to play along nicely in the war.

Yes, the Russians are coming to hack you. Yes, that's going to cause an uptick in incidents, regardless of what you do. Now harden up and figure out how you're going to keep this shit to a minimum, because that's your job, and it's the only thing you have control over.

Canada

[tsa]

What happend to good old Blame Canada?

Re:Canada

[Mashiki]

It was replaced. First by 4chan, then gamergate, and now Russia. Blaming someone else is the typical cop-out by people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions(or in-action).

Back in 1984

[cloud.pt]

I love how every single US problem these days is insta-mitigated with "blame the russians".

Hey Marissa

[93 Escort Wagon]

If you really felt you were at fault, you'd give all those millions of dollars back.

But it's quite obvious what's she's saying is "sorry not sorry" - "I was CEO, so of course the buck stopped with me... but I wasn't actually culpable in any way".

US needs legal liability

[EndlessNameless]

Good luck if you want to hold anyone accountable for any of this. Maybe you have the time and money to slug it out in the courts. Or years to wait for a verdict.

We have some experience with addressing this. Companies can get slapped pretty hard for violating HIPAA---either for improper disclosure or poor security. However the law was written, it is effective in making them think about security properly. A law by itself doesn't guarantee good conduct across the board, but it certainly helps when there are consequences.

If any congressman wants to extend HIPAA-level security requirements to any system that handles the personal information of American citizens, he gets my vote automatically. We should have done it 20 years ago. Better late than never.

Unless there are new rules and new consequences, nothing will change. Wallets and ballots, people.

Re:Should have colluded with Russia like Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't it be better if Yahoo just colluded with Russia's attack on its users like Trump colludes with Russia's attacks on America while denying that Russia is responsible for the crimes that he colludes with?

You obviously missed the fact that the Russian lawyer supposedly colluding with Trump met with the same group Hillary! hired to create that fake Trump dossier.

Yep, that same Russian lawyer met with Fusion GPS right before and right after Don Jr. said, "WTF?!?!" to her when she tried to entrap him.

Who's colluding with Russia?

"Follow the money"

Democrats paid Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS created that fake Trump dossier. Fusion GPS met with the Russian lawyer who tried to meet with Trump.

Why spend money on security..

[sqorbit]

...when it's way easier just to blame Russia. Lots of American's will jump on board with this. Russian hacking is the bad guy, we're the good guys. Now we can all just ignore that fact that US corporations are constantly targets because of horrible security policies and crappy management.

Indeed

[nospam007]

" I want to sincerely apologize to each and every one of our users,"

Both of them.

Heard in class yesterday

[DontBeAMoran]

Teacher: Where's your homework, Timmy?
Timmy: The Russians stole it!