A former software engineer has been found guilty of violating privacy while working for the company. The engineer hacked into the accounts of thousands of Yahoo users while searching for sensitive images and videos, federal prosecutors and court documents have confirmed.
Who is the accused?
The engineer's name is Reyes Daniel Ruiz. He's 34 years old and lives in Tracy, California. He faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Earlier this year, in February, he was released on $200,000 in bond.
How could he gain access to the accounts?
U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson confirmed in a statement that Ruiz has admitted to the crime. He used his job to gain access to internal Yahoo systems and hack into about 6,000 accounts, many of them belonging to young women, including his personal friends and colleagues.
Once he gained access to their account, Ruiz would then hack into the iCloud, DropBox, Gmail, Facebook messages, and other email accounts linked to the Yahoo account. He would actively search for sexual images and videos.
Yahoo soon realized he was a fraud. However, Ruiz destroyed the computer and hard drive he was using to store sexual content . The files were initially sealed and many details about the case were removed from the court record until September 30. Ruiz hacked these accounts in May and June of last year.
