Tag

Yahoo

Browsing

By Evan Stewart
Contributor

The U.S. Justice Department has charged two Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents, along with two other individuals, in connection with the massive cyber breach in 2014 at Yahoo. This is one of the largest cybersecurity breaches on record.

The two Russian FSB officers, Dmitry Dokuchaev and his superior Igor Sushchin, worked for the cyber investigative division of the FSB. The other two individuals charged are criminal hackers Karim Bartov and Alexsey Belan. Bartov was arrested in Canada on Tuesday and Belan is on the FBI’s most wanted list. Belan, Dokuchaev and Sushchin have yet to be apprehended for the Yahoo hack.

The charges issued include hacking, wire fraud, trade secret theft and economic espionage.

Acting Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s National Security Division, Mary McCord, stated that the hackers “protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the United States and elsewhere.” Their targets included accounts of U.S. and Russian government officials and journalists, as well as employees of financial institutions.

Officials reiterated that at this time, the charges in the indictment are only allegations. The defendants will be considered innocent unless they are proven guilty.