An Important Message About Yahoo User Security • Hacker News Board

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#101

Post by hood_syntax » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:31 PM UTC

arcticfox wrote: post #82

nostromo wrote: post #69

"The data stolen may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and hashed passwords but may not have included unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank account information, the company said." What's the difference between "may have" and "may not have" in this context? It seems like they're saying anything could have been stolen.

That is an incredibly deceptive sentence. They should have listed everything under "may have", unless I'm misunderstanding because they used some convoluted English.

No, it's intentionally deceptive.

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#102

Post by sofaofthedamned » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:31 PM UTC

Yahoo will survive this regardless of their 'state sponsored' hand waving or not.

The day the same happens to Google or Facebook will be very different.

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#103

Post by hood_syntax » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:32 PM UTC

dwightgunning wrote: post #86

patrickmn wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The de facto excuse to use when you get hacked these days. Who could possibly defend against an entire nation? And it's incredibly easy to "prove" that some Russian IP accessed your system at some point, therefore Putin is directly involved and no amount of security would've prevented him from getting in.

Would a hacker who claims unemployment benefits be considered state sponsored?

Truly food for thought...

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#104

Post by brian-armstrong » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:32 PM UTC

pavornyoh wrote: post #85

Can anyone elaborate as to why this is being announced two years later? Why now and not when it happened?

I believe a common reason for this is that they don't want to announce it until they're completely sure the breach is gone and that they have control of things again. Announcing that it happened and that it's ongoing forces them to either cease operations or face liability.

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#105

Post by talmand » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:32 PM UTC

aaronkrolik wrote: post #19

How is it that 200M user accounts are worth only $1800?

Bah, I would have topped out at $50. The vast majority of accounts from a free email service would be worthless.

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#106

Post by Jarwain » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:33 PM UTC

arcticfox wrote: post #82

nostromo wrote: post #69

"The data stolen may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and hashed passwords but may not have included unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank account information, the company said." What's the difference between "may have" and "may not have" in this context? It seems like they're saying anything could have been stolen.

That is an incredibly deceptive sentence. They should have listed everything under "may have", unless I'm misunderstanding because they used some convoluted English.

The way I read it is that the stolen data has a relatively high probability of including the first set of things, but a relatively low probability of including the second set of things. They don't want to say definitively for whatever reason.

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#107

Post by kolbe » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:33 PM UTC

nodesocket wrote: post #89

You'd think this would affect the stock price, but currently YHOO only trading down 8 cents (-0.18%). I honestly see this all the time. What sounds like really horrible news for a company, does not affect the price. Howerver, some random analyst or reporter who works at the Mercury Star Sun Inquirer writes a negative article or downgrade and the stock tanks. Doesn't make much sense.

Investors are conflicted: on the one hand, Yahoo had a data breach that will cost them trust, but on the other hand, investors are surprised to hear there are still 500 million Yahoo users.

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#108

Post by inestyne » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:33 PM UTC

The only reason they announced it was to avoid being guilty of an actual crime after being acquired and not announcing it before hand.

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#109

Post by pbarnes_1 » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:33 PM UTC

nodesocket wrote: post #89

You'd think this would affect the stock price, but currently YHOO only trading down 8 cents (-0.18%). I honestly see this all the time. What sounds like really horrible news for a company, does not affect the price. Howerver, some random analyst or reporter who works at the Mercury Star Sun Inquirer writes a negative article or downgrade and the stock tanks. Doesn't make much sense.

YHOO is being bought by Verizon. The stock price will not move out of a fixed range.

Re: An Important Message About Yahoo User Security

#110

Post by EpicEng » Thu, Sep 22, 2016, 7:34 PM UTC

arcticfox wrote: post #82

nostromo wrote: post #69

"The data stolen may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and hashed passwords but may not have included unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank account information, the company said." What's the difference between "may have" and "may not have" in this context? It seems like they're saying anything could have been stolen.

That is an incredibly deceptive sentence. They should have listed everything under "may have", unless I'm misunderstanding because they used some convoluted English.

I don't know about that, sounds to me like they're still in the process of investigating and they don't want to use any absolutes. "We think these were stolen, but we don't think these were" is what I take from it.