A former Yahoo software engineer has pleaded guilty to improperly accessing the accounts of around 6,000 Yahoo users in search of nude photos and videos. The news, outlined in a press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, says programmer Reyes Daniel Ruiz used his privileges at Yahoo to crack user passwords and access the accounts of primarily younger women, including friends and co-workers.
It is unclear if Ruiz’s ability to access Yahoo accounts was directly a result of his employee status — meaning Yahoo routinely let employees access sensitive user information, like passwords or account recovery keys — or if he simply used internal knowledge of Yahoo’s cybersecurity protections and backend…