Russian agents, hackers charged in Yahoo breach

Four people charged by U.S. officials for a Yahoo data breach include two Russian intelligence officers and two hackers they enlisted:

■ also known as “Kay,” ”Karim Taloverov” and “Karim Akehmet Tokbergenov,” is a 22-year-old hacker. He is a Canadian and Kazakh national and a resident of Canada.

■ also known as “Magg,” is a 29-year-old Russian who was born in Latvia when it was still part of the Soviet Union and has been on the FBI’s list of most wanted hackers for more than three years. He was indicted in Nevada in 2012 and in California in 2013, accused of computer fraud and abuse, aggravated identity theft and other crimes.

■ 33, also known as “Patrick Nagel,” is an officer in the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, assigned to Center 18, which is the Russian intelligence agency’s Center for Information Security.

■ 43, is Dokuchaev’s superior at the Russian intelligence agency. He also was “embedded as a purported employee and head of information security” at a Russian investment bank. FBI’s most wanted cyber criminals and has been indicted multiple times in the U.S. It’s not clear whether he or the other two defendants, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, will step foot in an American courtroom since there’s no extradition treaty with Russia.

“I hope they will respect our criminal justice system,” McCord said.

The indictment identifies Dokuchaev and Sushchin as officers of the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB. Belan and Baratov were paid hackers directed by the FSB to break into the accounts, prosecutors said.

Dokuchaev has been in custody in Russia since his arrest on treason charges in December. Russian media have reported that Dokuchaev and his superior were accused of passing sensitive information to the CIA. The media reports also have contended that Dokuchaev was arrested by the FSB several years ago and offered a choice: serve a long prison sentence on hacking charges or sign a contract to work for the agency.