US indicts 2 Russian officers, 2 others for Yahoo hack

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The U.S. on Wednesday indicted two Russian intelligence officers and two cyber hackers who are allegedly behind a massive data breach that targeted Yahoo's email servers.

The Justice Department identified the two Russian FSB officers as Dmitry Dokuchaev, 33, and Igor Sushchin, 43. The FSB is Moscow's main intelligence and law enforcement agency.

Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord told reporters the two were acting in their capacity as FSB officers when they worked with Alexsey Belan, 29, and Karim Baratov, 22, both hackers, to carry out the data breach that affected 500 million accounts from 2014 to 2016.

The FSB officers "protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the U.S. and elsewhere", the department said in a statement announcing the indictments.

The defendants targeted Yahoo accounts of Russian and U.S. government officials, including cyber security, diplomatic and military personnel, Russian journalists and employees of financial services and other commercial entities.

"The involvement and direction of FSB officers with law enforcement responsibilities makes this conduct that much more egregious," McCord said. "There are no free passes for foreign state-sponsored criminal behavior."

Canadian resident Baratov was arrested Tuesday in that country on a provisional U.S. arrest warrant, and his case is now before a Canadian court.

Belan has been indicted twice before and has been on the FBI's most wanted cyber criminals list for more than three years. He was arrested in Europe in June 2013, but escaped to Russia before he could be extradited.

FBI assistant director Paul Abbate said the U.S. "expects and hopes for" Russia's cooperation in extraditing the remaining three defendants, including Belan, who are currently in Russia. After announcing the indictments U.S. will put out another official request for their extradition, he said.

Any extradition seems highly unlikely, however, as Russia and the U.S. do not share a governing treaty, and it is doubtful Moscow would willfully hand over officials, or individuals accused of working on its behalf.

Yahoo assistant general counsel Chris Madsen said Wednesday's indictment "unequivocally shows the attacks on Yahoo were state-sponsored.

"We’re committed to keeping our users and our platforms secure and will continue to engage with law enforcement to combat cybercrime," he said in a statement.