Yandex says discovers employee breaks mailboxes data

MOSCOW, Feb 12 (PRIME) -- Russian Internet company Yandex has discovered that an employee had been providing unauthorized access to users’ mailboxes for personal gain, the company said on Friday in a statement.

The unnamed employee was one of three system administrators with the necessary access rights to provide technical support for the service. As a result of his actions, 4,887 mailboxes but no payment details held by Yandex were compromised.

“Yandex’s security team has already blocked unauthorized access to the compromised mailboxes. We have contacted the mailbox owners to alert them about the breach and they have been informed of the need to change their account passwords,” the company said.

A thorough internal investigation of the incident is under way, and Yandex will change administrative access procedures to minimize the potential for individuals to compromise the security of user data in future. The company has also contacted law enforcement.

End