In a rare move, the U. S. has indicted two Russian government agents for their suspected involvement in a massive Yahoo data breach. But what now?
In a rare move, the U. S. has indicted two Russian government agents for their suspected involvement in a massive Yahoo data breach. But what now?
Security experts say Wednesday’s indictment might amount to nothing more than naming and shaming Russia. That’s because no one expects the Kremlin to play along with the U. S. indictment.
“I can’t imagine the Russian government is going to hand over the two FSB officers,” said Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security strategy at SentinelOne.
“Even in the most successful investigations, state hackers are still immune from prosecution or retaliation,” said Kenneth Geers, a research scientist at security firm Comodo.
The two officers, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, work for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s intelligence agency, according to Wednesday’s indictment. They allegedly recruited a pair of third-party hackers to breach Yahoo and steal information on 500 million user accounts and helped the hackers carry out the crime.
The likelihood Russia would give up either agent is low, given that spies usually know state secrets.
