3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
New York irm gets $1 million
contract to review ODOT
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The state has awarded a nearly
$1 million contract to New York-based McK-
insey & Co. to conduct a long-awaited man-
agement review of the Oregon Department of
Transportation before lawmakers approve a
transportation package in 2017.
State oficials in late July nixed a previ-
ous contract with John L. Craig after revela-
tions about his close ties with ODOT and an
unearthed email showing he had sought to
replace the agency’s director.
Lawmakers have said they want an inde-
pendent, third party review to ensure the
department is operating eficiently before
they approve a transportation package in
2017. That legislation — one of Gov. Kate
Brown’s priorities as governor — could
hike gas taxes and fees on drivers and fun-
nel hundreds of millions of dollars in addi-
tional funding to the agency.
In an effort to get a review inished
in time for the 2017 session, the Depart-
ment of Administrative Services launched
an emergency process for selecting a new
contractor.
Brown selected McKinsey based on the
recommendations of a state procurement
team, said Bryan Hockaday, a press secre-
tary in Brown’s ofice.
“McKinsey had the most responsive pro-
posal, and they are a national company recom-
mended for their expertise,” Hockaday said.
Lyra Fontaine/The Daily Astorian
Dalin D’Alessandro from Portland State University and Tiffany Boothe from the Seaside
Aquarium take measurements of the dead whale at Oswald West State Park.
Researchers examine dead whale
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
ARCH CAPE — Slightly
north of the surfers and hik-
ers, a small team from the Sea-
side Aquarium and Portland
State University examined the
remains of a whale at Oswald
West State Park Thursday
morning. Curious passers-by
stopped to take pictures and ask
questions.
The dead humpback washed
ashore at the state park’s Short
Sand beach on Tuesday. It orig-
inally beached in nearby Arch
Cape on Friday, before washing
back out to sea.
The team hopes to ind
some clues as to why the whale
died, which may be challeng-
ing. Keith Chandler, the general
manager of the Seaside Aquar-
ium, said most of the whale’s
internal organs are gone after it
blew up, and it has been dead for
a while.
Portland State Univer-
sity biology research assis-
tant Dalin D’Alessandro and
Seaside Aquarium employ-
ees Tiffany Boothe and Mollie
Schmidt measured the whale
and will take blubber and skin
samples.
“We are looking for external
signs of trauma and entangle-
ment and possible hemorrhage
by cutting through the blub-
ber layer,” D’Alessandro said,
adding that they are examin-
ing exposed parts of the whale,
conducting a “limited nec-
ropsy” due to not having heavy
equipment.
The whale is about 38 feet
long and is missing its tail.
“Its tail was severed by
something, probably after it was
already dead,” Chandler said.
Oswald West State Park
will likely be its inal resting
place, since the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department has
decided to leave the whale and
let nature take its course. How-
ever, when larger storms hit the
coast over the next months or
weeks, what’s left of the mam-
mal could wash back out to sea,
Boothe said. It may take longer
to decay in cooler weather. State
park staff will provide educa-
tional talks about the whale at 1
p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
McKinsey has 25 days to deliver its work
plan for the review and until the end of Feb-
ruary to submit a inal product, Hockaday
said.
The state reached out to several irms
with experience in management reviews
and received proposals from McKinsey
and Boston Consulting Group, Hockaday
said.
Craig, who won the original $350,000
contract to do the review, oversaw the agen-
cy’s $1.3 billion outsourced bridge repair
and replacement program for six years. He
stepped down as program manager of Ore-
gon Bridge Development Partners just 15
months ago.
After questions arose whether Craig’s
connections with ODOT employees pre-
sented a conlict of interest, a transporta-
tion commissioner dug up an old email from
Craig in which he appeared to be seeking
agency Director Matt Garrett’s job.
Tammy Baney, chairwoman of the Ore-
gon Transportation Commission, received
the job solicitation email from Craig in
January.
She said she didn’t read the entirety of its
contents until after Craig landed the contract
for the ODOT review, when she recalled he
had previously reached out to her. After
reading the email in July, she recommended
that state oficials revoke his contract.
The Capital Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Big email hack doesn’t exactly send the message Yahoo needed
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
Yahoo has been struggling for
years to keep people coming
back to its digital services such
as email. That challenge just
got more daunting after hack-
ers stole sensitive informa-
tion from at least 500 million
accounts.
The startling breach dis-
closed Thursday is believed to
be the largest to hit a single email
provider. The security break-
down risks magnifying Yahoo’s
preexisting problems — specii-
cally, that it is losing users, traf-
ic and the advertising revenue
that follows both, to rivals such
as Google and Facebook.
Some snarky online com-
mentators quipped that the
hack would have been far more
devastating if people actually
still used the company’s ser-
vices. While there’s some truth
to that observation, millions
around the world still rely on
Yahoo mail and other services,
and are now potentially at risk
of identity theft or worse.
Losing users
And if these people give
up on Yahoo as a result, the
consequences for the com-
pany itself — now scheduled
to become part of Verizon as
soon as its $4.8 billion deal
closes — could also be dire.
“Yahoo may very well be fac-
ing an existential crisis,” said
Corey Williams, senior direc-
tor of products and marketing
at the computer security irm
Centrify.
Yahoo was already facing
a steep decline in email traf-
ic, despite CEO Marissa May-
er’s efforts to upgrade the ser-
vice in order to foster more
user loyalty. In July, 161 mil-
lion people worldwide used
Yahoo email on personal com-
puters, a 30 percent decline
from the same time in 2014,
when the breach irst occurred.
That’s according to the lat-
est data from the research irm
comScore. By contrast, Goo-
gle’s rival Gmail service saw
desktop users rise 9 percent
to nearly 429 million over the
same period.
The email breach raises
questions about Yahoo’s abil-
ity to maintain secure and
effective services, particu-
larly since it’s been laying off
staff and trimming expenses to
counter a steep drop in revenue
over the past eight years.
At the time of the break-in,
Yahoo’s security team was led
by Alex Stamos, a respected
industry executive who left
last year to take a similar job
at Facebook.
Once more unto
the breach
Yahoo didn’t explain what
took so long to uncover a heist
that it blamed on a “state-spon-
sored actor” — parlance for a
hacker working on behalf of a
foreign government.
The Sunnyvale, Califor-
nia, company declined to
explain how it reached its con-
clusions about the attack for
security reasons, but said it
is working with the FBI and
other law enforcement. Yahoo
began investigating a possi-
ble breach in July, around the
time the tech site Motherboard
reported that a hacker who
uses the name “Peace” was
trying to sell account informa-
tion belonging to 200 million
Yahoo users.
Yahoo didn’t ind evidence
of that reported hack, but addi-
tional digging later uncov-
ered a far larger, allegedly
state-sponsored attack.
“We take these types
of breaches very seriously
and will determine how this
occurred and who is responsi-
ble,” the FBI said in a Thurs-
day statement.
although it hasn’t disclosed
how many of those people
have email accounts.
The data stolen from Yahoo
includes users’ names, email
addresses, telephone numbers,
birth dates, scrambled pass-
words, and the security ques-
tions — and answers — used
to verify an accountholder’s
identity. The company said the
attacker didn’t get any infor-
mation about its users’ bank
accounts or credit and debit
cards.
Security experts say the
Yahoo theft could hurt the
affected users if their personal
information is mined to break
into other online services or
used for identity theft. All
affected users will be notiied
about the theft and advised
how to protect themselves,
according to the company.
ll
Ca ime
yt
n
A
Yahoo also is recommend-
ing that all users change their
passwords if they haven’t done
so since 2014. If the same pass-
word is used to access other
sites, it should be changed too,
as should any security ques-
tions similar to those used on
Yahoo.
The Verizon impact
News of the security
lapse could cause some peo-
ple to have second thoughts
about relying on Yahoo’s
services, raising a prickly
issue for the company as it
tries to sell its digital opera-
tions to Verizon.
That deal, announced two
months ago, isn’t supposed
to close until early next year.
That leaves Verizon with wig-
gle room to renegotiate the
purchase price or even back
out if it believes the secu-
rity breach will harm Yahoo’s
business. That could happen if
users shun Yahoo or ile law-
suits because they’re incensed
by the theft of their personal
information.
Verizon said it still doesn’t
know enough about the Yahoo
break-in to assess the poten-
tial consequences. “We will
evaluate as the investigation
continues through the lens
of overall Verizon interests,
including consumers, custom-
ers, shareholders and related
communities,” the company
said in a statement.
Delay of sale?
At the very least, Verizon
is going to need more time
to assess what it will be get-
ting into if it proceeds with
its plans to take over Yahoo,
said Scott Vernick, an attor-
ney specializing in data secu-
rity for the law irm Fox
Rothschild.
“This is going to slow
things down. There is going
to be a lot of blood, sweat
and tears shed on this” Ver-
nick said. “A buyer needs to
understand the cybersecurity
strengths and weaknesses of
its target these days.”
Astor Street Opry Company
Presents
Fre
e
as
Est F
ima t t
es
Jeff Hale P ainting
• Residential
• Commercial
•Cedar Roof Treatments
• Interior & Exterior
Directed by Lisa Fergus
Over 20 years local experience
Jeff Hale,
Contractor
503-440-2169
LICENSED
BONDED
INSURED
CCB#179131
SHOW RUNS THRU
OCTOBER 22 ND
RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED
For tickets go to
astorstreetoprycompany.com
Or by phone: 503-325-6104
Fridays 7pm (October 7th, 14th and 21st)
Saturday 7pm (October 8th, 15th and 22nd)
Sunday 2pm (October 2nd)
ASOC PLAYHOUSE
129 W. Bond St
(Uniontown)
Astoria
Volunteer
Most accounts
ever stolen
The Yahoo theft represents
the most accounts ever stolen
from a single email provider,
according to computer secu-
rity analyst Avivah Litan with
the technology research irm
Gartner Inc.
“It’s a shocking number,”
Litan said. “This is a pretty big
deal that is probably going to
cost them tens of millions of
dollars. Regulators and law-
yers are going to have a ield
day with this one.”
Yahoo says it has more
than 1 billion monthly users,
Tickets
$ 7 - $ 16
Produced with special permission by Samuel French
(Behind the Chamber of Commerce)
Pick of the Week
Dewey
4-Year Old Grey and White
Pit Terrier
SPONSORED BY
MOSSY TECH | L.J. ALLEN CONSTRUCTION | BOGH ELECTRIC
Joyously optimistic.
Treat and toy loving,
Brings new meaning to the words
“enthusiastic” and “endearing”!
(More on http://Petfi nder.com/ )
Sponsored
By
C LATSOP
A NIMAL A SSISTANCE
C LATSOP C OUNTY A NIMAL S HELTER
1315 SE 19 th Street, Warrenton • 861 - PETS
www.dogsncats.org
Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat
Dawn McIntosh rejoins Campbell & Popkin
Judge-elect Dawn McIntosh has rejoined Campbell &
Popkin to work closely with Chris Palmer, in whom
she has great conidence. Dawn and Chris are both
well-known for skillfully representing clients in di-
vorce, seperation, custody and other family law mat-
ters. Campbell & Popkin also provides services in
business law, litigation, real estate, estate planning and
probate. Dawn and Chris are both taking new clients.
Call For A
free
IN-HOME
CONSULTATION!
Dawn McIntosh
www.campbellpopkin.com
Chris Palmer
503-738-8400 • 1580 N. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside
Shutters, Wood Blinds, Cellular
Shades, Soft Shades, Vertical
Blinds, Valances,Woven Wood
& more!
SAVE
25%
on Select Signature Series
Financing
Available
HIRING
EVENT!
Meet the managers, apply for a job!
Saturday, Sept. 24 th 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
1371 SW Hemlock, Cannon Beach 97110
All Positions – Part Time, Full Time, Year Round, Flexible
Going to school and available only couple days a week? Looking for great Full Time job? Want
to make great wages? The Pelican is the place to be! We are fl exible, easy to work with and we
need you! Come meet our managers and join our team at the Pelican, Cannon Beach!
Oregon Coast
503-738-5242
Lincoln City
541-994-9954
SW Washington
503-738-5242
www.budgetblinds.com
*Offer not valid with any other offers. Offer good at time of initial estimate only.
Offer good at participating franchises only. Each franchise independently owned and operated.
CCB#177717
Attack a hit on a
struggling brand