US charges two Russian hackers and two Russian spies over 2014 Yahoo hack

Over the last couple of years, Yahoo has suffered two major security breaches, affecting hundreds of millions of users. While the company didn't handle the situation very well at all, it does seem that the US authorities have tracked down the culprits behind at least one of the attacks, with the US Justice Department indicting four Russians in connection to it, two of which are believed to be spies.

The initial report here comes from the Washington Post, which also claims that two of the Russians being indicted work for the country's FSB intelligence agency, effectively making them spies. This also marks the first time the US has directly levied cybercrime charges at a Russian official.

The other two people being charged are said to be run of the mill hackers, who were hired to help out with this specific job. One of these hackers was arrested back in December, while the other was arrested just yesterday in Canada. However, given that the US has no extradition treaty with Russia, only one of the four people involved may end up facing trial.

Charges in this instance are said to include trade secret theft, wire fraud and economic espionage, though the full list is likely quite a bit longer than that.

KitGuru Says: The initial hack here happened way back in 2014, so it has taken quite some time for this investigation to come to a conclusion. However, while it's all well and good that those responsible have been found, Yahoo really should face some sort of reprimand for its lack of disclosure, leaving 500 million of its own customers vulnerable for almost two years. 

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