The FBI announced that the men, which include two Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers and two criminal hackers, were charged by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of California.
The two FSB officers are believed to work in a special unit of the Russian law enforcement agency that serves as the FBI’s point of contact in Moscow. The indictment alleges that officers Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin “paid, directed, and protected” Russian national Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov, a naturalized Canadian citizen and resident, in compromising the internet giant’s network.
“The stolen information was used to obtain unauthorized access to the contents of accounts at Yahoo, Google, and other webmail providers,” the FBI said in a blog post.
