Payroll Staffer Was Lured Into Compromising Snapchat Employee Data

The high-tech provider of disappearing texts fell for a phishing scheme.

On Feb. 28, Snapchat disclosed that the data of some of its current and past personnel has been hacked. On Feb. 26, a scammer impersonated the company’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, and sent a phishing email asking for payroll information to an employee in that department.

Neither Snapchat’s security system, nor the employee realized it was a ploy, and the data was “disclosed externally,” the company explains.

Snapchat says it took action within four hours, adding it was an isolated phishing incident.

App user data and the company’s servers are safe, Snapchat says, still sensitive about the topic after a massive amount of data was leaked in late December of 2013.