US Justice indicts two hackers and two Russian spies for Yahoo hack

The American judiciary has charged two hackers and two Russian spies over the hack at Internet service Yahoo. With the information of 500 million users, the Russian secret service is said to have obtained information from companies and diplomats.

The two agents of the Russian secret service are said to have engaged the two hackers to gain access to the Yahoo accounts. According to the American justice system, that access allowed them to steal information from Russian and American government officials, including military personnel. The FSB also gained access to accounts of employees of financial services through this access, the American justice claims.

In addition, one of the hackers used the access to the accounts for making money. For example, he searched the emails for credit card details and used thirty million accounts for scamming. “The Department of Justice is sending a strong message that we will not allow individuals, groups or states to harm the privacy of our citizens, the economic interests of our companies or the security of our country,” the US Justice Department said in a briefing.

The four suspects are three Russians and a hacker with passports from Kazakhstan and Canada. They are 43, 44, 29 and 22 years old. It is rare for a country to sue spies from another country for a hack. One of the four suspects has been arrested so far. The hack took place from January 2014 and affected approximately 500 million accounts. This hack is separate from the August 2013 hack, which allowed attackers to obtain data from more than a billion accounts.