The U. S. Department of Justice charges two Russian FSB employees, a Russian criminal hacker and a Canadian criminal hacker in connection with the 2014 Yahoo data breach.
The U. S. Department of Justice charged four Russian-connected hackers with crimes related to the Yahoo mega-breach, a move solution providers said they hope sends a signal to hackers about the consequences of a high-profile attack.
The charges apply to the 2014 data breach that affected 500 million users and exposed account information, which could include names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birthdays, hashed passwords and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The hackers then used that information to gain unauthorized access into Google and other webmail providers.
The Justice Department announced indictments of four people in connection with the attacks, including two Russian intelligence agency FSB employees, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev and Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, as well as Russian criminal hacker Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan and Canadian criminal hacker Karim Baratov.
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The charges include computer fraud and abuse, economic espionage, engaging in theft of trade secrets, wire fraud, unauthorized computer access for commercial or private financial gain, and identity theft.
