Question

in 2014, yahoo suffered a data breach that exposed details of at least 500 million user accounts, giving attackers access to real names, email addresses, dates of birth, and telephone numbers. with access to that information, which of these actions could be taken by an attacker? note that there are 2 answers to this question. choose 2 answers: a they could post users home addresses on a public social media account. b they could email a user with a threat to reveal private information. c they could sell the users social security numbers to another attacker on the internet. d they could hack into a users computer and access their file systems. e they could send spam messages to a users mobile phone.

Explanation:

• Option A: The exposed information does not include home addresses, so this action is not possible.
• Option B: With access to email addresses (exposed in the data breach), attackers can email users with threats to reveal private information (like real names, dates of birth which are exposed).
• Option C: Social Security numbers are not among the exposed details (real names, email addresses, dates of birth, and telephone numbers are exposed), so this action is not possible.
• Option D: Just having the exposed information (real names, email addresses, dates of birth, and telephone numbers) does not directly enable hacking into a user’s computer and accessing file systems.
• Option E: With access to telephone numbers (exposed in the data breach), attackers can send spam messages to a user’s mobile phone.

Answer:

B. They could email a user with a threat to reveal private information.
E. They could send spam messages to a user’s mobile phone.