Computer Crime - Research Paper Example

In July 2012 a major security breach took place against Yahoo that resulted in 450,000 usernames and passwords to be disclosed (Gonsalves, 2012). This event raised many questions regarding the precautionary measures taken by Yahoo to protect the security of its users. Instead of storing the passwords cryptographically they were stored as plain texts which made it very easy for hackers to gain access to this confidential data. Usually usernames and passwords are stored using the cryptography technique which encrypts the data thereby hiding the information.

This encryption prevents hackers from deciphering the data. Yahoo refused to give an interview but confirmed the breach saying that the data was stolen via its Contributor Network, which is one of the websites owned by Yahoo. Yahoo Contributor Network is a Yahoo website for freelance content writers that write articles for another of its website Yahoo Voice. Although only five percent of the stolen data had valid passwords, Yahoo announced that they were taking prompt action to fix the susceptibility that led to the exposure of the passwords.

Yahoo notified the other companies about the accounts that had been hacked including LinkedIn, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, and so on (Gonsalves, 2012). The hacker group called D33Ds Company admitted to be responsible for the breach through a statement that they published on their website. The hackers said that the security breach was meant to be a warning for Yahoo and not a threat. They also alleged to having used the program SQL injection which is normally used to send instructions using the search field or a URL to breach a badly secured website.

The SQL injection allowed the hackers to gain access to the database containing the usernames and passwords (Gonsalves, 2012). The event happened just before the annual shareholder’s meetings at Yahoo and the temporary CEO Ross Levinsohn said that they were looking for a transparent strategy in order to bring back their investor confidence (Chaykowski & Robertson, 2012). According to Jordan Robertson in an interview given to Bloomberg (Yahoo Investigating Security Breach), it is not very embarrassing for a company like Yahoo because the stolen usernames and passwords were of mostly old and inactive accounts and the number 450,000 was not huge because it represented only a small fraction of people who were affected.

A spokesperson from Yahoo also previously mentioned that these numbers only made up about only one percent of the total Yahoo active users (Chaykowski & Robertson, 2012). Robertson said that the humiliating factor was the susceptibility of a company like Yahoo through a method called SQL injection. This is because it only involved very basic security measures to be prevented and Yahoo’s inability to create such a security protocol was embarrassing. As a result of the whole security breach event, Yahoo closed at $15.

69 in New York and its shares slid down by 2.7% in the same year (Chaykowski & Robertson, 2012). The Yahoo event did not only affect Yahoo Mail users but because its users signed up for the content writing website Contributor Network, the breach also resulted in retrieval of password for email accounts other than Yahoo such as Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL mail. One way this event could have been