Critical Analysis of Yahoo's 2014 Data Breach

The assignment is based on a critical analysis of Yahoo's 2014 data breach, which affected over 500 million user accounts. It discusses the hacking incident, the company's response, and the implications for users. The report also provides references to various sources used in the research.

Critical Analysis of Yahoo's
2014 Data Breach
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Data breach is the intended and unintended release of secure or confidential data to an
untrusted surroundings. There are various terms for this procedure that includes unintentional
revealing of data, leak of data and information flow. The report is based on critical analysis of
Yahoo's 2014 Data Breach. As per the Azfar, Choo and Liu, 2016, hackers stole more than 500
million Yahoo users accounts details and information in the year of 2014. The main purpose of
this report is to focus on critical analysis on data breach of large number of users of yahoo's
company.
MAIN BODY
Yahoo is the web service provider company which mainly known for its web portal,
search engine and various other facilities. It is reported that there is massive data breach in which
500 million user accounts was hacked in month of September. According to the Spanos and
Angelis, 2016, yahoo announced that accounting information of more than 500 users was stolen
by hackers in a year which determined as biggest invasion of other company's computer network.
With this statement, firm also declare that some user details which includes names, email,
addresses, birth date and mobile number. After hack of yahoo, still it is one of the major internet
engaged website which will be used by billion of individual in the world. Later on hacking of
users information on account, yahoo announced among them is to change their passwords which
protect their personal details. Yahoo was forcing to admit that it can be identified an effort of
hacking the users email accounts information in massive manner. The hackers has apparently
using a list of large number of username and acquire their passwords through the third party
server to enter in a user accounts. For this they can easily getting their names and email address
quickly. The yahoo attack was unexampled in size, in which more than other huge attacks on
different websites like eBay which come under the light at the time of yahoo is in complex
situation. For protect from such attacks, yahoo reset the password of their users to stop such
cyber attacks.
According to the Rittinghouse and Ransome, 2016, firm was slowly using aggressive
security measures after the breach on 4,50,000 accounts in the year of 2012. The changing yahoo
password is the start step for many users. Then they have to ensure that their password should be
different from others which reduces the chances of hacking. As per the view of
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Anagnostopoulos, Zeadally and Exposito, 2016, US securities and Exchange Commission
announced that yahoo agreed to pay the fine which misled the capitalist with not inform them
about hacking of users details. The major advantage of analysis is that after this hacking issue,
still yahoo mail is one of the most free email service site which used by number of users and this
will maintain the digital identities in all over the world. It can be stated as the view of …., stolen
yahoo data is most critical because it just not only lead their company system but also it operate
the users connection with their banks, social media channels and certain other business services.
The current SEC formation reveals huge data and information that are related to 2014 hacking
incident which was disclosed in September month. For example, if yahoo said that its forensics
researcher evaluate that government supporter hacker retained the access on the customer
account by using cookie forgery, which considered as an attack technique that can protect
password service.
It can be analysed that it is the biggest data breach ever which impact on yahoo and its
users. After this incident, company motivate their customers to modify their password because it
is required for security of their personal details or information. The main purpose of this critical
analysis is to find out some positive and negative point which occurs while data breach happened
in 2014 (Trautman and Ormerod, 2016). Along with this, yahoo suggested that its users need to
use Yahoo Account Key which is an authentic method for help in verifying a customer identity
by using mobile phone and ignore the usage of password on yahoo mail everytime.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report, it can be analysed that there is data breach of yahoo
that includes 500 million user accounts was hacked in month of September by hackers. Yahoo
was forcing to declare that it can be identified an effort of hacking the users email accounts
information. In this case, hackers are stolen information of users by identify their password and
it was destroy customers trust over the company. But still all the users are like to prefer only
yahoo as a source of sending messages and data from different person.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Azfar, A., Choo, K.K.R. and Liu, L., 2016. Android mobile VoIP apps: a survey and
examination of their security and privacy. Electronic Commerce Research. 16(1). pp.73-
111.
Spanos, G. and Angelis, L., 2016. The impact of information security events to the stock market:
A systematic literature review. Computers & Security. 58. pp.216-229.
Rittinghouse, J.W. and Ransome, J.F., 2016. Cloud computing: implementation, management,
and security. CRC press.
Anagnostopoulos, I., Zeadally, S. and Exposito, E., 2016. Handling big data: research challenges
and future directions. The Journal of Supercomputing. 72(4). pp.1494-1516.
Trautman, L.J. and Ormerod, P.C., 2016. Corporate Directors' and Officers' Cybersecurity
Standard of Care: The Yahoo Data Breach. Am. UL Rev.. 66. p.1231.
Online
Yahoo says hackers stole data from 500 million accounts in 2014. 2018. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-cyber/yahoo-says-hackers-stole-data-
from-500-million-accounts-in-2014-idUSKCN11S16P>.
Yahoo Says 1 Billion User Accounts Were Hacked. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/technology/yahoo-hack.html>.
Yahoo confirms over 500 million users affected in 2014 breach. 2018. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/22/yahoo-confirms-over-500-million-users-
affected-in-2014-breach/>.
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