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Yahoo has laid off about 25% of its cybersecurity team – known as… Paranoid – Over the past year, TechCrunch has learned.
Overall, the company has laid off or lost between 40 and 50 people out of a total of 200 employees on its cybersecurity team since the start of 2024, according to several current and former Yahoo employees who spoke to TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity. (Yahoo is the parent company of TechCrunch.)
The Paranoids aren’t the only team affected by layoffs. Valery Leborsky, who was He was named chief technology officer at Yahoo in Septembersent an email this week to employees announcing changes across the broader technology unit, including enterprise productivity and core services. “This was an extremely difficult decision and I did not make it lightly,” said the email to employees, obtained by TechCrunch.
The Paranoids’ so-called red team, or offensive security team — which runs cyber attack simulations to identify vulnerabilities in a company’s network before outside hackers can — was completely wiped out this week, and there have been at least three rounds of layoffs. Which affected the cybersecurity team. This year, according to sources.
Yahoo confirmed the layoffs, including the axing of its red team, when reached by TechCrunch on Thursday.
“Yahoo’s security program has matured significantly over the past seven years and has become widely recognized as an industry-leading operation globally. As part of this evolution, we have made strategic adjustments, including This includes moving offensive security operations to an outsourcing model.” “This change reflects the sophistication of our program and enables us to focus resources on critical security priorities, maintaining the highest standards of protection for our users and platforms.”
The company as a whole laid off more than 1,600 employees — about 20% of its total workforce — last year. As Axios reported at the time. Jim Lanzone, Yahoo’s CEO, told Axios that the layoffs would be “extremely beneficial to Yahoo’s overall profitability,” and that the company “will act aggressively” and invest in other parts of its business.
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