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?<\/b>
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\u2019s indictment might amount to nothing more than naming and shaming Russia. That\u2019s because no one expects the Kremlin to play along with the U. S. indictment.
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine the Russian government is going to hand over the two FSB officers,\u201d 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\u2019s Federal Security Service (FSB), the country\u2019s intelligence agency, according to Wednesday\u2019s 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.
Three of the suspects allegedly involved in the Yahoo data breach.
Wednesday\u2019s indictment is more about sending a symbolic message to Russia, said Mark Kuhr, CTO at security firm Synack and a former U. S. National Security Agency network analyst.
\u201cFrom Russia\u2019s perspective, it does hurt them a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cWe (the U. S.) are embarrassing them in the news.\u201d
It also exposes the FSB agents and hackers allegedly involved in the Yahoo breach, forcing them to tread lightly. The U. S. has issued warrants for their arrest. The fourth suspect, a third-party hacker named Karim Baratov, was already caught in Canada.
In addition, the indictment shows that U. S. investigators can track Russian cyberespionage operations.
\u201cYou can try and hide in the corners of the dark web, but we will hunt you down,\u201d said FBI special agent John Bennett at a press conference on Wednesday.
But it\u2019ll take more than just naming and shaming to dissuade the Kremlin from sponsoring future cyberattacks, experts said.
\u201cMore needs to be done,\u201d said Edward McAndrew, a former U. S. federal cybercrime prosecutor who now works at law firm Ballard Spahr. \u201cWe have to move beyond the indictment stage.\u201d
The next stage might go beyond the legal realm and into geopolitical steps like sanctions or even cyberwarfare, he said.
Of course, two can play at that game. It’s possible that Russia might indict U. S. agents it suspects in a hacking case — not that it would have any more luck prosecuting them.
\u201cI won\u2019t be surprised if that happens,\u201d McAndrew said. \u201cI imagine that our government, and most governments, will not be handing over their intelligence operatives.\u201d<\/p>\n