Justice Department Charging Russian Spies and Criminal Hackers in Yahoo Intrusion

The Justice Department is set to announce Wednesday, reports the Washington Post, the indictments of two Russian spies and two criminal hackers in connection with the heist of 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014, marking the first U.S. criminal cyber charges ever against Russian government officials (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source). From the report: The indictments target two members of the Russian intelligence agency FSB, and two hackers hired by the Russians. The charges include hacking, wire fraud, trade secret theft and economic espionage, according to officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the charges have not yet been announced. The indictments are part of the largest hacking case brought by the United States.

Re:

[Kierthos]

Well, the Yahoo hack happened in 2014, and they're just now getting around to charging these Russian spies. So, you know, investigations such as this take a while to run.

Now, the Trump administration is almost certainly doing everything they can to slow-walk any investigation into the election, but that's not the same thing as no investigation happening.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

Sadly, it appears that Dear Leader Trump will suppress any investigation and attempt to find the truth about the election.

Were you expecting to read a daily status report about investigations into an attempted CIA coup d'etat in the free copy of USA Today in your hotel room? Because that's not how it works.

Re:

[bit trollent]

Right wing idiots and Russian collaborators may think it's a 'coup' for the CIA to record Russian spies who collaborated with the Trump campaign to hack our election, but that's not what a coup is. A coup is collaborating with a foreign government's spies in their hacks of your opponent, granting them policy changes as a reward. Examples: Ukraine policy reversal in RNC platform, and gutting of the State Department.

I'm sorry that your boy Donald Trump was committing treason with Russian spies, but the CIA's

Re:

[Highdude702]

Has anybody told you today that you're a moron? Because they should have with that kind of rhetoric.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

One person did, but he's an abject retard so I didn't take it very seriously...

I guess if you keep sticking your head in the ground to avoid noticing your President's treasonous collaboration with a hostile foreign government's hacking of our campaign, eventually your brain just stops working.

Would a some Russian sponsored fake News which makes Donald Trump appear less like the puppet of a hostile foreign government make you feel better?

Re: That's funny...

[Type44Q]

So, you posted AC to try to "increase your numbers" but it's obvious from the way you structure your sentences that you're the same person. Desperation stinks?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

But but but...

[Anonymous Coward]

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/03/15/0521225/hacking-victim-cant-sue-foreign-government-for-hacking-him-on-us-soil-says-court

Re:

[Kierthos]

I think there's a bit of difference between "can't sue a foreign government" and "charging foreign spies". Now, if some of the users on Yahoo who were affected by this tried to sue the Russian government over this, that precedent could apply.

Re:

[EzInKy]

Spies are subject to the death penalty, governments do not.

Re:

[Nidi62]

Spies are subject to the death penalty, governments do not.

Of course they are. It's called revolution.

Re:

[EzInKy]

When you are ready to subject your mother, father, brothers, sisters, and your children to death get back at me. Oh, and if you have none of those then fuck off, because you have nothing to lose.

Re:

[EzInKy]

You lead the first wave, we will follow.

Re:

[easyTree]

What's the point in the Second Amendment and all those guns if you're not going to use them?

* Drives up gun crime and therefore increases profit for the Prison industry?
* Increased profit for the gun industry?
* Increased marketing profit for the movie industry - product placement ftw?
* Make your population partially self-culling - low-cost population control ftw ?
* Chimes well with the fiction that you are free and brave ?
* What else...?

Re: But but but...

[Type44Q]

Shithead, if gun rights lead to gun crime, there'd be more gun violence per capita in Idaho than in California, not less.

Re:

[Kierthos]

I seriously doubt anyone is going to put to death over hacking Yahoo.

Can they now convict the U.S.?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the U.S. hacks 1,000s of computers (both foreign governments and individuals), does this mean any other country can now pass laws against hacking and immediately convict the U.S. for criminal behavior?

Re:

[LordWabbit2]

Someone mod the above comment up.

I couldn't agree more, the US and all their TLA organizations are running around hacking everything in sight, they should get sued shitless. But it's OK for the US to do it, just no one else is allowed. I would point out the double standards here, but that's pretty much standard operating procedure for the US.

Re:

[skids]

A) No, see two articles down on the front page
B) They could criminally charge our government employees, however.

Legal words have meaning. Use them carefully.

Re:

[benjonson]

Since the U.S. hacks 1,000s of computers (both foreign governments and individuals), does this mean any other country can now pass laws against hacking and immediately convict the U.S. for criminal behavior?

Why should they, if the U.S. does not?

Or perhaps you confuse "indict" with "immediately convict"?

Certainly if U.S. citizens, say employees of the CIA, engage in economic espionage of say, China's Baidu, why on earth wouldn't they file whatever legal claims they can? And I think they should.

Re:

[AHuxley]

The US likes its sovereign immunity. Any US worker in another nation would usually be covered by some treaty or policy with that nations security services.
Been invited in and been given full immunity. A US spy hut, camp, base, building to spy from would be legally protected.

I thought Yahoo were making it up

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

When Yahoo claimed they had been hacked by a foreign government organisation - rather than private hackers - I thought "well, they would claim that" because the big guys are pretty much unstoppable. This article is a claim that indictments may be about to happen, things are starting to become interesting.
Still, the US along with various allies are quite happy to cause problems in other countries. Even a smoking gun is not going to change anything apart from perceptions.

Re:

[easyTree]

Are you guys allowed to have the same country cast as boogeyman twice within the memory of the living ? Pretty sure that's unfair to the other candidates. Wake up USA USA USA USA.

Hold on a mo.

[ledow]

Three stories down:

"Hacking Victim Can't Sue Foreign Government For Hacking Him On US Soil, Says Court"

Well.. which is it?

Re:

[tsqr]

Both. You can't sue a foreign government because of Sovereign Immunity. But Sovereign Immunity doesn't apply to individuals, so you can sue a foreign person.

So what?

[CaptainDork]

They have charged Edward Snowden [washingtonpost.com], as well.

How's that working out?

Re:

[easyTree]

USA has skyrocketed in worldwide opinion polls?

Re:

[CaptainDork]

The 2016 election cycle opinion polls fucked up my predictions, so I'm not keen on those.

However, a casual glance at foreign news sources quickly reveal that "America" is now a punch line.

Re:

[easyTree]

Harsh.

"USA, USA, USA, USA."

And the quest continues

[easyTree]

"What is the maximum value of the universal-sandbox' irony-type ?"

They're just justifying what they did to do more

[TheOuterLinux]

They will be hunting for spies and terrorists while putting innocent people at risk only to find nothing or what we already knew about before the witch hunts. Kinda reminds me of what we did a decade ago, but it's cyber instead of sand and everyone is put at privacy and security risk. They'll find something stupid and make it a big deal to get the Wikileaks thing off their back.