A Senate committee moved last month to force former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to testify in a hearing Wednesday about corporate data breaches, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Senate Commerce Committee’s authorization of the subpoena highlights lawmakers’ growing concern over data breaches, as well as potential stakes for 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 had to intervene with the subpoena last month after Mayer initially declined the panel’s invitation to testify voluntarily, according to committee aides. 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, The Journal writes.
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.
Mayer, who departed Yahoo earlier this year, contended that she had no knowledge about the basis for the most recent disclosure. A representative for 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 Journal adds.
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, The Journal notes.
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