DOJ Indicts 2 Russian Intel Agents, 2 Hired Hackers on 2014 Yahoo Data Breach Charges

The DOJ indicted two Russian intelligence agents and two Russia-hired hackers Wednesday for their roles in the 2014 Yahoo data breach that resulted in the theft of information on 500 million Yahoo accounts. That breach and a 2013 breach, both disclosed last year, collectively compromised 1.5 billion user accounts. Yahoo has been dealing with congressional inquiries, lawsuits and a $350 million price reduction in the Verizon deal to acquire the company (see 1612150010, 1612230029 and 1702210024). Among the indicted were Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev and Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, both agents with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), DOJ said. The department said it also indicted Russian national Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan and Canadian-Kazakh national Karim Baratov, and that FSB hired both. The defendants face a combined 47 charges, including conspiracy, computer fraud, aggravated identity theft, trade secret theft and economic espionage, DOJ said. The defendants “targeted Yahoo accounts of Russian and U.S. government officials, including cyber security, diplomatic and military personnel,” said acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord during a news conference. “They also targeted Russian journalists; numerous employees of other providers whose networks the conspirators sought to exploit; and employees of financial services and other commercial entities.” McCord said Belan has been on the FBI's most wanted cyber criminals list for more than three years and faced charges in the U.S. on two other occasions for hacking e-commerce companies. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., praised DOJ Wednesday for the indictments, which he said are “yet another reminder that American businesses must invest in robust cyber defenses, be more willing to share threat information, and be much more upfront with consumers when their defenses fail.” Warner said in a statement he continues to believe Yahoo “had a responsibility to be more forthcoming in publicly reporting this breach sooner than it did, and both the public and private sectors often move too slowly to address the growing threats posed by cyber criminals.”