In re Yahoo! Inc. Customer Data Sec. Breach Litig.

313 F. Supp. 3d 1113
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMarch 9, 2018
DocketCase No. 16–MD–02752–LHK
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 313 F. Supp. 3d 1113 (In re Yahoo! Inc. Customer Data Sec. Breach Litig.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Yahoo! Inc. Customer Data Sec. Breach Litig., 313 F. Supp. 3d 1113 (N.D. Cal. 2018).

Opinion

LUCY H. KOH, United States District Judge

Plaintiffs Kimberly Heines, Hashmatullah Essar, Paul Dugas, Matthew Ridolfo, Deana Ridolfo, Yaniv Rivlin, Mali Granot, Brian Neff, and Andrew Mortensen (collectively, "Plaintiffs") bring a putative class action against Defendant Yahoo! Inc. ("Yahoo"). Plaintiff Brian Neff also brings a putative class action against Defendant Aabaco Small Business, LLC ("Aabaco") (collectively with Yahoo, "Defendants"). Before the Court is Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' First Amended Consolidated Class Action Complaint ("FAC"), ECF No. 196. ECF No. 205 ("Mot."). Having considered the parties' submissions, the relevant law, and the record in this case, the Court hereby GRANTS in part and DENIES in part the motion to dismiss.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

Defendant Yahoo was founded in 1994 and has since grown into a source for internet searches, email, shopping, news, and many other internet services. FAC ¶ 32. One of Yahoo's most important services is Yahoo Mail, a free email service. Id. ¶ 33. Plaintiffs allege that "[m]any users have built their digital identities around Yahoo Mail, using the service for everything from their bank and stock trading accounts to photo albums and even medical information." Id.

Yahoo also offers online services for small businesses, including website hosting and email services (hereinafter, "Small Business Services"). Id. ¶ 34. Users must pay for Small Business Services, and users are required to provide credit or debit card information for automatic monthly payments for Small Business Services. Id. Prior to November 2015, Yahoo provided these services through a division called Yahoo Small Business. Id. "Since November 2015, Yahoo has provided its small business services through its wholly owned subsidiary Aabaco." Id.

Plaintiffs allege that in order to obtain email services and Small Business Services from Defendants, users are required to provide personal identification information ("PII") to Defendants. Id. ¶ 35. This PII includes the user's name, email address, birth date, gender, ZIP code, occupation, industry, and personal interests. Id. ¶ 37. For some Yahoo accounts, including the small business accounts, users are required to submit additional information, including credit or debit card numbers and other financial information. Id. ¶¶ 34, 36.

In addition to the PII that Plaintiffs submitted directly to Defendants, Plaintiffs also allege that users used their Yahoo email accounts to send and receive a *1121variety of personal information. Id. ¶ 7. Each named Plaintiff alleges that he or she included sensitive information in the content of his or her Yahoo emails. See, e.g. , id. ¶¶ 18-21. The individual allegations of the named Plaintiffs, including allegations regarding the personal information that these named Plaintiffs included in their Yahoo email accounts, are discussed further below.

1. Earlier Data Security Issues Putting Yahoo on Notice

Plaintiffs allege that Defendants have a long history of data security failures that should have put Defendants on notice of the need to enhance their data security. For example, in 2008 and 2009, "multiple hosts on Yahoo's corporate network were compromised." Id. ¶¶ 64-65. In 2010, Google notified Yahoo that attackers were using Yahoo systems to attack Google. Id. ¶ 66. In 2011, then-Chief Information Security Officer ("CISO") Justin Somaini gave a presentation "identifying gaping holes in Yahoo's data security." Id. ¶ 67. In 2012, a third party informed Yahoo of a vulnerability within its system. Id. ¶ 72.

Yahoo also experienced a breach in 2012. Although the Federal Trade Commission found as early as 2003 that "SQL injection attacks" were a known and preventable data security threat, "in 2012, Yahoo admitted that more than 450,000 user accounts were compromised through an SQL injection attack-with the passwords simply stored in plain text." Id. ¶¶ 77-78. Plaintiffs allege that according to news stories at the time, "[s]ecurity experts were befuddled ... as to why a company as large as Yahoo would fail to cryptographically store the passwords in its database. Instead, [the passwords] were left in plain text, which means a hacker could easily read them." Id. ¶ 77.

According to Plaintiffs, the 2012 hackers intended the 2012 attack as a wake-up call, and the hackers left a message stating: "We hope that the parties responsible for managing the security of this subdomain will take this as a wake-up call, and not as a threat ... There have been many security holes exploited in Web servers belonging to Yahoo! Inc. that have caused far greater damage than our disclosure. Please do not take them lightly." Id. ¶ 79. However, despite this warning, Plaintiffs allege that "Yahoo's culture actively discouraged emphasis on data security." Id. ¶ 89. Plaintiffs allege that "former Yahoo security staffers interviewed later told Reuters that requests made by Yahoo's security team for new tools and features such as strengthened cryptography protections were, at times, rejected on the grounds that the requests would cost too much money, were too complicated, or were simply too low a priority." Id.

Yahoo also hired security firms who identified problems with Yahoo's systems. For example, in 2012, Yahoo retained Mandiant, an outside cybersecurity firm, to perform a threat assessment; Mandiant's subsequent report detailed issues with Yahoo's security and attack groups in Yahoo's systems. Id. ¶¶ 70, 73, 75. Similarly, Dell SecureWorks and Leaf SR conducted security assessments at various times between 2013 and 2016 that turned up vulnerabilities. Id. ¶¶ 83-84, 87-88.

2. Three Data Breaches at Issue in the Instant Case

The instant lawsuit involves three data breaches that occurred between 2013 and 2016. According to Plaintiffs, Defendants represented to users that users' accounts with Defendants were secure. For example, Yahoo's website stated that "protecting our systems and our users' information is paramount to ensuring Yahoo users enjoy *1122a secure user experience and maintaining our users' trust" and that "[w]e deploy industry standard physical, technical, and procedural safeguards that comply with relevant regulations to protect your personal information." Id. ¶ 43. Similarly, Aabaco's website stated that "[w]e have physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to protect your Personal Information." Id. ¶ 46. Nonetheless, despite these representations, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants did not use appropriate safeguards to protect users' PII and that Plaintiffs' PII was thus exposed to hackers who infiltrated Defendants' systems. Specifically, Plaintiffs allege three separate data breaches: a breach that occurred in 2013, a breach that occurred in 2014, and a "forged cookie breach" that occurred in 2015 and 2016. The Court refers to these breaches collectively as the "Data Breaches." The Court discusses each below.

a. The 2013 Breach

The first breach occurred in August 2013 ("2013 Breach"). Id. ¶ 133.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
313 F. Supp. 3d 1113, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-yahoo-inc-customer-data-sec-breach-litig-cand-2018.