Two San Diego residents have filed a class-action complaint against Yahoo following a data breach that compromised 500 million accounts.
The complaint was filed Thursday in U.S. District in San Diego by local attorney David Casey on behalf of Jennifer Myers and Paul Dugas. It came on the same day the email provider confirmed the massive security breakdown that dates back to late 2014.
In the complaint, the plaintiffs allege their private information was compromised. The complaint accuses Yahoo of “deceptive practices” and “negligence,” alleging the tech company did not take reasonable care to prevent the hack.
The complaint states that “damage caused by identity theft in general registers in the billions of dollars.”
“The type of information compromised in this data breach is highly valuable to perpetrators of identity theft,” the complaint states. “Names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords and security question answers can all be used to gain access to a variety of existing accounts and websites.”
The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of damages to be determined at a jury trial.
“They're really angry this wasn’t found out sooner,” the plaintiff’s attorney David Casey told NBC 7. “For it to have occurred and then for it not to be discovered for a two-year period is pretty outrageous.”
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Yahoo says it has more than 1 billion monthly users, although it hasn't disclosed how many of those people have email accounts. In July, 161 million people worldwide used Yahoo email on personal computers, a 30 percent decline from the same time in 2014, according to the latest data from the research firm comScore.
The company said the attacker didn't get any information about its users' bank accounts or credit and debit cards.
Yahoo told NBC 7 "We don't comment on ongoing litigation."
To read the full complaint, go here.
