A Yahoo hack that exposed the information of 500 million Yahoo accounts in 2014 has led to U.S. federal prosecutors indicting four men, including two Russian spies.
The data breach, which Yahoo announced in September, was one of the largest known hacks, according to The New York Times. The four men face a total of 47 criminal charges for conspiracy, computer fraud, economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, and aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department stated.
Three of those arrested were Russian, including security agents Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev and Igor Anatolyvich Sushchin, and Russian national Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan. The fourth man arrested was Karim Baratov, a Canadian and Kazakh national, according to the Times.
“The criminal conduct at issue, carried out and otherwise facilitated by officers from an FSB unit that serves as the FBI’s point of contact in Moscow on cybercrime matters, is beyond the pale,” the acting assistant attorney general, Mary B. McCord said, according to the Times.
The two Russian agents apparently hired Belan and Baratov to carry out the hacks, according to Agence Fance-Presse. Baratov was arrested in Canada this week, and Belan is one of the FBI’s “Cyber Most Wanted” criminals, McCord said.
Twitter users reacted to the indictments and accusations that the Trump administration had close ties with Russia.
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