Russian spies to be charged in huge Yahoo data breach

Two Russian spies, one well-known Russian hacker and one Canadian have been charged with stealing sensitive information from 500 million Yahoo user accounts in one of corporate America’s biggest-known hacks, USA officials said. Cookies are tools that allow the website and a computer to save information, such as a user name, password or address, so it doesn’t need to be re-entered. According to the Washington Post, Russian intelligence members hired two hackers to help them with the Yahoo! dirty work.

“The defendants targeted Yahoo accounts of Russian and United States government officials, including cyber security, diplomatic and military personnel”, McCord said.

“There are no free passes for foreign, state-sponsored criminal behavior”, McCord said.

An arrest is expected in Canada soon, while the three other suspects are in Russian Federation, according to a Bloomberg report citing an anonymous source. The other motive was financial gain for the criminal hackers, authorities said.

The U.S. has requested that Interpol issue red notices for those at large, but unless the Russian government decides to cooperate they could easily remain beyond the arm of worldwide law.

The FSB sought “information for intelligence purposes, targeting journalists, dissidents, and USA government officials”, but the spy agency allowed its officials and the hackers to use the email caches for personal financial gain.

Two other hackers who were also indicted acted with the backing of Moscow, said Justice Dept. and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials in Washington DC. In December, the company admitted to another cyberattack in 2013 that affected more than a billion users.

“Cyber crime poses a significant threat to our nation’s security and prosperity, and this is one of the largest data breaches in history”, Attorney General Jeff Sessions says.

The 2016 American presidential election apparently isn’t the only thing Russian hackers allegedly meddled with.