But a former Yahoo employee who worked as a software engineer with the company has turned out to be a real-life-hacker and how! Reyes Daniel Ruiz, of California, has pleaded guilty to hacking thousands of Yahoo users’ online accounts for sexual images and videos for his personal use.
The 37-year-old software engineer has admitted to having cracked the passwords of about 6,000 Yahoo accounts to gain access, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern District of California announced, reports Business Insider.
Ruiz targeted mostly women including his friends and colleagues. Once he broke the security code, he would make copies of the photos and videos and store them on his personal computer and hard disk. He also used the security information to hack their Facebook, iCloud, Gmail and DropBox accounts.
Ruiz also said that he has destroyed the computer and hard drive where he stored the images after he was caught onto this illicit activity by his employer.
He has been held under the charges of computer intrusion and interception of a wire communication. The second count was, however, dropped as part of a plea deal.
After leaving Yahoo, Ruiz began working with a San Francisco-based software company Okta. Okta, in a statement to HuffPost, said it was unaware of Ruiz’s illicit activities and the allegations against him at the time of hiring in October. They also assured that he was fired as soon as the charges against him were made public.
“The privacy and security of our customers is our top priority, and immediately upon learning of the indictment, Ruiz’s access was revoked and Okta worked with a third party to conduct a forensic analysis, which confirmed that no company or customer data was compromised,” a spokesperson for the company said.
Apart from imprisonment, Ruiz faces a maximum fine of $250,000 (Rs. 1.7 crores) and restitution.