Former Yahoo CEO apologizes for data breach, blames Russians

Former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer apologized on Wednesday for a pair of massive data breaches at the internet company and blamed Russian agents at a hearing on the growing number of incidents involving major U.S. companies.

"As CEO, these thefts occurred during my tenure, and I want to sincerely apologize to each and every one of our users,” she told the Senate Commerce Committee, testifying alongside the interim and former CEOs of Equifax Inc and a senior Verizon Communications Inc executive.

"Unfortunately, while all our measures helped Yahoo successfully defend against the barrage of attacks by both private and state-sponsored hackers, Russian agents intruded on our systems and stole our users’ data."

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Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless operator, acquired most of Yahoo Inc`s assets in June, the same month Mayer stepped down. Verizon disclosed last month that a 2013 Yahoo data breach affected all 3 billion of its accounts, compared with an estimate of more than 1 billion disclosed in December.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)