Yahoo Cybersecurity Team Faces Significant Layoffs
Yahoo has significantly reduced its cybersecurity team, known as "The Paranoids," by approximately 25% over the past year. This translates to 40-50 employees from a 200-person team being laid off or leaving through attrition since the beginning of 2024.
These layoffs extend beyond the cybersecurity team, impacting other technology units such as enterprise productivity and core services. Yahoo's CTO, Valeri Liborski, acknowledged the difficulty of these decisions in a recent email to employees.
Key Layoff Impacts
- The "red team," responsible for simulated cyberattacks to identify vulnerabilities, has been entirely eliminated.
- At least three rounds of layoffs have affected the cybersecurity team this year.
Yahoo confirmed these changes, stating that its security program has matured significantly. The company is shifting to an outsourced model for offensive security operations, allowing it to focus on other critical security priorities. This move follows Yahoo's broader layoffs in 2023, affecting 20% of its workforce, as part of a strategy to improve profitability and invest in other business areas. For related news on tech layoffs, see 2024 Tech Layoffs Surge. This restructuring raises questions about the future of cybersecurity within Yahoo and the broader tech industry. To learn more about current security trends, check out Meta's efforts to combat deepfakes.