On March 15, 2017, the United States announced the indictment of four defendants for their roles in the hacks of Yahoo’s network, systems, and user accounts. The indictment stems from an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and charges the defendants with 47 counts of criminal acts, beginning as early as 2014 and going through December 2016. The charges include stealing the account information of more than 500 million Yahoo accounts.

Two of the four defendants, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev and Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, are officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (“FSB”). Another defendant, Alexsey Alexseyeich Belan, was previously indicted in the United States in 2012 and 2013 for charges relating to computer fraud and abuse, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The FSB officers and Belan are alleged to be residents of Russia. The fourth defendant, Karim Baratov, is a resident of Canada.  Baratov was arrested in Canada on March 14, 2017, in response to a provisional arrest warrant submitted by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to Canadian law enforcement.

The 47-count indictment covers 14 distinct sets of charges, with maximum penalties ranging from two to 20 years imprisonment. The charges include conspiring to commit computer fraud and abuse, conspiring to engage in economic espionage, conspiring to engage in theft of trade secrets, economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, conspiring to commit wire fraud, accessing (or attempting to access) a computer without authorization to obtain information for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain, transmitting code with the intent to cause damage to computers, counterfeit access device fraud, counterfeit access device making equipment, conspiring to commit access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

More information on the allegations and indictment is available in a press release issued by the DOJ.