Dive Brief:
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Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., want Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer to release information about the two huge data breaches at Yahoo in 2013 and 2014, claiming in a letter to Meyer that "company officials have thus far been unable to provide answers to many basic questions about the reported breaches."
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The senators want to know when the incidents happened, and what steps the company has taken to help affected consumers. Thune is the Commerce Committee Chairman and Moran is the Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security Subcommittee Chairman.
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Yahoo reportedly canceled a congressional staff briefing scheduled for Jan. 31, which the senators say triggered "concerns" about the whether Yahoo is willing to work openly with Congress.
Dive Insight:
Yahoo did not offer a comment. Is it possible the company needs more time to prepare for the briefing? A cancelation without explanation or a request for additional time is unsettling.
Last September, Yahoo disclosed a 2014 cyberattack that exposed the email credentials of half a billion accounts. In December, the company said it had uncovered yet another cyberattack wherein 1 billion user accounts were compromised in 2013. Yahoo has not yet explained why the incidents were not disclosed for years.
Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a filing indicating it plans to investigate whether Yahoo Inc. could have disclosed its two enormous data breaches sooner.
