Senate Committee Subpoenaed Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer
November 07 2017 - 7:32PM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee moved last month to force
former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer to testify in a hearing
Wednesday about corporate data breaches, after she initially
declined lawmakers' invitation.
The Senate Commerce Committee's authorization of the subpoena,
an unusual move, underscores lawmakers' growing concern over data
breaches. It also highlights the potential stakes for Ms. Mayer,
once one of the nation's most celebrated CEOs, in testifying about
Yahoo's massive data breaches and subsequent stumbles in disclosing
them.
The committee authorized its subpoena late last month after Ms.
Mayer declined the panel's invitation to testify voluntarily,
according to committee aides. A committee spokesman and a
representative for Ms. Mayer said Tuesday that she would testify at
Wednesday's hearing.
Ms. Mayer's representatives initially told the committee she
wasn't the right person to address recent disclosures that a
massive 2013 data breach at Yahoo was far worse than initially
believed, according to a representative for Ms. Mayer.
Yahoo's new parent company, Verizon Communications Inc.,
disclosed last month that the breach affected essentially all of
the online company's three billion user accounts. Yahoo had
previously said about one billion accounts were affected.
Ms. Mayer, who departed Yahoo earlier this year, contended that
she had no knowledge about the basis for the most recent
disclosure. A representative for Ms. Mayer said she agreed to
appear voluntarily after it was confirmed that a witness from
Verizon would also be a witness at the hearing,
The recent disclosure concerning Yahoo has added to lawmakers'
deepening concerns about how some big companies, including Equifax
Inc., are handling issues such as data security and breach
disclosures.
Committee Chairman John Thune (R., S.D.) was expected to say in
his opening statement Wednesday that "companies that collect and
store personal data on American citizens must step up to provide
adequate cybersecurity [and] there should be consequences if they
fail to do so," according to an excerpt of his prepared
remarks.
But new legislation on data breaches appears a long shot this
year, given disagreements between the financial, retail and
telecommunications sectors.
The recent Yahoo disclosure is also likely to raise tough
questions for Ms. Mayer about how Yahoo handled data security and
why it didn't initially realize the extent of the breach.
Ms. Mayer, a former executive of Alphabet Inc. unit Google, was
brought in to turn around struggling Yahoo in 2012. Her efforts
were only partly successful, and much of the company eventually was
sold to Verizon, which is intent on building its own online
businesses.
The breaches caused Verizon to knock about $350 million off its
original price of $4.83 billion for Yahoo. Verizon gave up its
right to sue the entity that sold Yahoo, now called Altaba Inc.,
over any allegations that it covered up the hacks.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 07, 2017 19:17 ET (00:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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