U.S. charges two Russian spies in Yahoo cyberattackMarch 16, 2017 - 10:42 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Two Russian intelligence agents and a duo of hackers were indicted Wednesday, March 15 over a data breach that compromised 500 million Yahoo accounts in one of the largest cyberattacks in history, AFP reports. The indictment announced by the U.S. Justice Department links Russia's top spy agency, the FSB, to the massive hacking operation which began in 2014 with the twin goals of espionage and financial gain. It comes amid a high-stakes investigation into Russian cyber-meddling in the U.S. election, potentially aimed at boosting the campaign of President Donald Trump. The Russian agents were identified as Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, both members of the successor agency to Russia's KGB. Dokuchaev was an officer in the FSB Center for Information Security, known as "Center 18," which is tasked with investigating hacking and is the FBI's point of contact in Moscow for cyber crimes. The 33-year-old Dokuchaev was reported to have been arrested in Moscow earlier this year on treason charges. He is accused of directing the Yahoo hack along with his superior, the 43-year-old Sushchin. The two officers "protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the United States and elsewhere," acting assistant attorney general Mary McCord told reporters. They are accused of hiring hackers Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov to carry out the attacks, which continued until late 2016. Targets of the Yahoo breach included both Russian and U.S. government officials, including cyber security, diplomatic and military personnel, according to McCord, who said it aimed to gather information "clearly some of which has intelligence value." She added that "the criminal hackers used this to line their own pockets for private financial gain," seeking to cash in on the breach by accessing stolen credit or gift card numbers, and through a series of spam marketing schemes. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |