SUNNYVALE, Calif.—A grand jury in the Northern District of California has indicted four defendants, including two officers of the Russian Federal Security Service, for computer hacking, economic espionage and other criminal offenses in connection with the data breach involving more than 500 million Yahoo accounts.
It is unknown to what extent, if any, the massive breach impacted the financial accounts of U.S. consumers.
The defendants are Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev, 33, a Russian national and resident; Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, 43, a Russian national and resident; Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan, aka “Magg,” 29, a Russian national and resident; and Karim Baratov, aka “Kay,” “Karim Taloverov” and “Karim Akehmet Tokbergenov,” 22, a Canadian and Kazakh national and a resident of Canada, according to the Department of Justice.
DoJ said the indictment cited more than 500 million victims whose Yahoo account information was stolen by defendants, more than 30 million accounts that were accessed without authorization to facilitate a spam campaign; and at least 18 additional users at other webmail providers whose accounts were accessed without authorization.
The DoJ stated that the alleged conspiracy likely began in 2014.
As CUToday.info reported, Yahoo has also disclosed a second breach, one that took place in 2013 and involves more than one-billion user accounts.