Reuters
FILE PHOTO: A man takes part in a hacking contest during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas
- A former Yahoo software engineer pleaded guilty to hacking 6,000 Yahoo accounts in search of sexual photos and videos.
- 34-year-old Reyes Daniel Ruiz admitted in court on Monday that he used work access to hack these accounts that mostly belonged to younger women, including his personal friends and work colleagues.
- Business Insider reached out to Yahoo's parent company, Oath, for comment but did not immediately hear back.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A former Yahoo software engineer pleaded guilty to hacking 6,000 Yahoo accounts in search of sexual photos and videos.
The US Attorney's Office said in a press release on Monday that 34-year-old Reyes Daniel Ruiz admitted in court on Monday that he used his role at work to access internal Yahoo systems, crack passwords, and hack thousands of users' accounts, which mostly belonged to younger women - including his personal friends and work colleagues.
Ruiz then made copies of images and videos that he found and stored these on his computer and hard drive at home. He admitted to later destroying these.
Prosecutors said that once he gained access to these users' Yahoo accounts, he was able to compromise other of their online accounts, such as iCloud, Facebook, Gmail, and DropBox, where he searched for more private images and videos.
Ruiz had been charged with one count of Computer Intrusion and one count of Interception of a Wire Communication, and pled guilty to the former charge in a plea agreement. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 2020.
Business Insider reached out to Yahoo's parent company, Oath, for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
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