Ancaster man sentenced for security breach
SAN FRANCISCO — A Hamilton man has been sentenced to five years in prison in connection with a massive security breach at Yahoo that U.S. federal agents say was directed by Russian government spies.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria also fined 23year-old Karim Baratov US$250,000.
Baratov, from Ancaster, pleaded guilty in November to nine felony hacking charges. He acknowledged hacking thousands of webmail accounts for seven years, ending with his arrest last year.
U.S. law enforcement officials have called Baratov a “hacker for hire” who was paid by members of the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, to access accounts.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Baratov used “spear phishing” schemes that would trick victims into entering their account credentials into webpages he built that appeared to be from their webmail providers.
His lawyers contended he didn’t know he was working for the Russian spy agency.
Baratov was arrested in Hamilton in March 2017 under the Extradition Act after American authorities indicted him for computer hacking, economic espionage and other crimes.
After Baratov’s guilty plea, his lawyers told reporters he hacked only eight accounts and did not know that he was working for Russian agents connected to the Yahoo breach.
“He’s been transparent and forthright with the government since he got here,” lawyer Andrew Mancilla said at the time.
In August 2017, Baratov decided to forgo his extradition hearing to face the charges in California. His Canadian lawyer at the time said the move was intended to speed up the legal process.
Also facing charges are Russian agents Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, who prosecutors say used the information they stole from Yahoo to spy on Russian journalists, U.S. and Russian government officials, and employees of financial services and other private businesses.