Cape Breton Post

Canadian Kazakh national arrested over massive Yahoo breach

-

A Canadian man of Kazakh origins who appeared to live a lavish lifestyle in southern Ontario was arrested as one of four suspects in a massive hack of Yahoo that targeted American government officials, Russian journalist­s opposed to the regime of President Vladimir Putin, and ordinary email users, authoritie­s said Wednesday.

Karim Baratov, 22, was taken into custody in Ancaster, Ont., on Tuesday morning at the request of American officials, a Toronto police spokesman said.

“Our job was to locate and arrest one of the people,” Mark Pugash told The Canadian Press. “We did that safely without incident.”

The U.S. Department of Justice said a grand jury in California had indicted Baratov and three others — two of them allegedly officers of the Russian Federal Security Service — for computer hacking, economic espionage and other criminal offences.

According to the department, the four are alleged to have hacked into Yahoo’s systems and stolen informatio­n from more than 500 million user accounts.

“(They) then used some of that stolen informatio­n to obtain unauthoriz­ed access to the contents of accounts at Yahoo, Google and other webmail providers, including accounts of

Russian journalist­s, U.S. and Russian government officials, and private-sector employees of financial, transporta­tion and other companies,” the department alleged.

“One of the defendants also exploited his access to Yahoo’s network for his personal financial gain, by searching user communicat­ions for creditcard and gift-card account numbers.”

Baratov was arrested under the extraditio­n act, and appeared in court in Hamilton Wednesday morning, court staff said. His case was put over until Friday afternoon, when he was expected to appear by video.

Mike Le, owner of All In Detailings in Mississaug­a, Ont., called Baratov an exotic car buff who had referenced doing some “computer geek

stuff.” His client was popular and flashy but also reserved about anything personal, Le said.

“All my friends know him too, and none of them know anything about his life,” Le said. “He’s very secretive about his life.”

Le said he worked on an Aston Martin for Baratov, who he said frequently bought and sold expensive cars.

 ?? INSTAGRAM VIA CP ?? Karim Baratov is shown in a photo from his Instagram account. Baratov, a Canadian man of Kazakh origins, has been arrested in Ontario as one of four suspects in a massive hack of Yahoo emails, Toronto police said.
INSTAGRAM VIA CP Karim Baratov is shown in a photo from his Instagram account. Baratov, a Canadian man of Kazakh origins, has been arrested in Ontario as one of four suspects in a massive hack of Yahoo emails, Toronto police said.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada