US Justice Department Files Charges Against Four Individuals for Breaching 500 Million Yahoo Email Accounts
The U.S. government has recently filed formal charges versus four defendants who are being linked to the hacking of up to 500 million personal Yahoo email accounts.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice department issued a statement declaring that charges will be filed against four individuals – mostly Russian nationals. Among the four defendants, two were identified as working for the Russian Federal Security Service, with the agency tagging them as those who "protected, directed, facilitated, and paid criminal hackers." Meanwhile, the other two are alleged co-conspirators.
The four defendants are: Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev, 33; Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, 43; Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan, 29; and Karim Baratov, 22. According to the Department of Justice, Baratov is a Canadian and Kazakh national currently living in Canada, while the first three names mentioned are all citizens and residents of Russia.
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Dokuchaev and Sushchin were the identified Russian agents, while Belan and Baratov were named as their co-conspirators.
The suspects are charged with "computer hacking, economic espionage and other criminal offenses in connection with a conspiracy."
According to the same news release from the Justice department, the four defendants victimized up to 500 million Yahoo email users by allegedly stealing their account information and illegally accessing some of the email accounts to carry out "a spam campaign." The Justice department believes that the works of the Russian agents and their co-conspirators started as early as January 2014.
They have also allegedly targeted email accounts of journalists, government officials, employees from the private sector (financial, transportation, etc.) who are residing in the U.S. and Russia.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, stated that crimes committed in cyberspace sends "a significant threat to our nation's security and prosperity, and this is one of the largest data breaches in history."
Sessions also recognized "the tireless efforts of U.S. prosecutors and investigators, as well as our Canadian partners, today we have identified four individuals, including two Russian FSB officers, responsible for unauthorized access to millions of users' accounts."
"The United States will vigorously investigate and prosecute the people behind such attacks to the fullest extent of the law," added Sessions.
The government has also revealed that the investigation – that led to the identification of the four defendants – was headed by the San Francisco Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
