Snapchat apologizes for employee payroll data leak after phishing attack

A leak of employee payroll data is a nightmare for every company -- especially one that's, by some measures, still in startup stage. 

That's the fate that befell Snapchat on Friday, and now the company has issued a formal apology and an explanation of what exactly happened. 

In a blog post, Snapchat claims the data was stolen from the company via an "isolated phishing scam." A scammer impersonating the company CEO asked for employee payroll data from the company Snapchat department, and employees fell for the scheme. 

"When something like this happens, all you can do is own up to your mistake, take care of the people affected, and learn from what went wrong," the post reads. 

According to Snapchat, the phishing attempt was an isolated incident, the company systems were not breached, and no user information was stolen. 

Snapchat says it contacted the FBI and offered affected employees two years of identity-theft insurance and monitoring as a form of compensation. 

Finally, Snapchat says it will "redouble" its "already rigorous" training programs related to privacy and security in the future. 

This latest incident was not, strictly speaking, a "hack," but Snapchat has had its share of security-related issues in the past. In October 2014, around 98,000 private photos and videos from users, including some celebrities, were posted online.

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