In breach's wake, Yahoo user lawsuits begin to pile up

The lawsuits filed against Yahoo in the wake of a massive data breach at the Internet media company are increasing.

Two cases filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco seek class action-status — one Saturday on behalf of Edward McMahon of New York and another Friday for Maria Sventek of Little Rock, Ark. —  and charge Yahoo with failing to protect users' personal information in one of the largest data breaches of its kind.

Yahoo on Thursday said that it had been the victim of a breach in 2014 in which at least 500 million Yahoo accounts were stolen from the company in what it thought was a hack by a state-sponsored actor. Among the data possibly taken: names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.

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In the McMahon case, his attorneys say that Yahoo "intentionally, willfully, recklessly, or negligently" failed to protect its computer systems and failed to tell users that their data "was not kept in accordance with applicable, required, and appropriate cyber-security protocols, policies, and procedures."

Yahoo violated Federal Trade Commission Act provisions and California business laws by "failing to employ reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect subscribers’ personal information," Sventek alleges in her suit.

These suits follow a similar one filed Friday by another Yahoo user Robert Schwartz of New York.

The investigation into the breach threatens to delay Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo. The telecom giant bet out multiple bidders for Yahoo's core business and assets and seeks to pay $4.8 billion to close the deal in the first quarter of next year.

Yahoo declined comment on the lawsuits.

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Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider