The U.S. Justice Department announced charges Wednesday against four defendants, including two Russian security services officers, in a mega data breach at Yahoo that affected at least a 500 million user accounts, according to a federal law enforcement official.
Two of the defendants are Russian FSB officers and the other two are criminal hackers.
One of the defendants has been taken into custody in Canada, and another is on the list of the FBI’s most wanted cyber criminals.
The charges arise from a compromise of Yahoo user accounts that began at least as early as 2014.
Though the Justice Department has previously charged Russian hackers with cybercrime—as well as hackers sponsored by the Chinese and Iranian governments—this would be the first criminal case brought against Russian government officials.
It comes as federal authorities investigate Russian interference through hacking in the 2016 presidential election.
(AP)
