14 DAY TRIAL // Four people are going to be indicted in the United States in relation to the Yahoo hacks that exposed hundreds of millions of user accounts.
The Department of Justice is getting ready to file formal accusations against four individuals who have not been identified, a source close to the matter said, choosing to keep its name secret due to the sensitivity of the matter, Bloomberg reports.
One of the individuals is apparently getting arrested in Canada, while the other three are still in Russia, possibly untouchable at this point given how there is no extradition treaty between the United States and Russia.
The hacks were announced last year. In September, Yahoo said a 2014 data breach resulted in criminals extracting half a billion account details from its servers. In December, Yahoo admitted that another breach that took place in 2013 was actually worse and affected about 1 billion accounts. Documents filed a few weeks ago mentioned that Yahoo directors knew of the 2014 hack soon after it happened, but chose to remain silent on the matter.
Data breaches nearly derailed Verizon deal
The revelations of the security breaches Yahoo suffered came after the company reached a deal with Verizon regarding its acquisition. While Verizon wanted to shave $925 million off the deal, they settled for a price trim of $350 million to $4.48 billion.
Yahoo has said that it was able to identify the intrusion associated with the 2013 breach, adding that the 2014 hack is believed to have been the hand of "state-sponsored actors." They said that the subsequent cookie forging attack that took place was also the hand of the latter actor.
Some 46 lawsuits have been filed against Yahoo over the data breaches and more are expected to come. Furthermore, Yahoo is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to bring the data breaches to the attention of its investors in a timely manner.
Update - It's official. Two Russian spies and two hackers charged for 2014 hack