Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
eWEEK.com
Search
eWEEK.com
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    DOJ Charges Russian Intelligence Officers in 2014 Yahoo Hack

    By
    SEAN MICHAEL KERNER
    -
    March 15, 2017
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Russia Yahoo Hack

      Yahoo was right; it was nation-state backed attackers from Russia who perpetrated a breach of 500 million Yahoo users in 2014. The U.S. Department of Justice announced on March 15 that a grand jury in the Northern District of California has formally indicted four defendants, including three Russian nationals and one resident of Canada.

      “The indictment unequivocally shows the attacks on Yahoo were state-sponsored,” Chris Madsen, assistant general counsel and head of Global Law Enforcement, Security & Safety at Yahoo, wrote in a statement. “We appreciate the FBI’s diligent investigative work and the DOJ’s decisive action to bring to justice those responsible for the crimes against Yahoo and its users.”

      Yahoo first publicly disclosed that it was the victim of a 2014 breach in September 2016. At the time of the initial disclosure, Yahoo emphasized that the attack was state-sponsored.

      Two of the charged defendants, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, are officers in Russia’s state intelligence agency known as the Federal Security Service (FSB). According to the indictment, Dokuchaev and Sushchin protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the United States and elsewhere.

      “The criminal conduct at issue, carried out and otherwise facilitated by officers from an FSB unit that serves as the FBI’s point of contact in Moscow on cybercrime matters, is beyond the pale,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord, said in a statement. “Once again, the Department and the FBI have demonstrated that hackers around the world can and will be exposed and held accountable. State actors may be using common criminals to access the data they want, but the indictment shows that our companies do not have to stand alone against this threat.”

      The two Russian FSB agents worked with co-defendants Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov to obtain access to the email accounts of thousands of individuals, according to the DOJ indictment. Belan allegedly was able to gain access to Yahoo’s Account Management Tool (AMT), which is a proprietary tool used by Yahoo to make changes to user accounts. Belan was also able to get access to a portion of the Yahoo User Database (UDB) that contained information on 500 million user accounts.

      The DOJ indictment alleges that the FSB officers helped enable Belan’s activities by providing him with law enforcement and intelligence information to help avoid detection by U.S. and other law enforcement agencies.

      In total, the indictment lists 47 counts for charges, including conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. According to the indictment, the illegal activities of the defendants against Yahoo started no later than January 2014 and continued until December 2016.

      Baratov was arrested by Canadian officials on March 14, while Dokuchaev is being held by Russian officials in connection to a treason charge for allegedly passing secrets to the CIA. The other two defendants are currently at large.

      “Today we continue to pierce the veil of anonymity surrounding cyber crimes,” FBI Director James Comey said in a statement. “We are shrinking the world to ensure that cyber criminals think twice before targeting U.S. persons and interests.”

      Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      EWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      ZEUS KERRAVALA - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      WAYNE RASH - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Info

      © 2020 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×