In a rare move, the U.S. has indicted two Russian government agents for their suspected involvement in a massive Yahoo data breach. But what now?<\/p>\n
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Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2017 03:52:00 -0700<\/strong><\/p>\n In a rare move, the U.S. has indicted two Russian government agents for their suspected involvement in a massive Yahoo data breach. But what now? <\/p>\n Security experts say Wednesday\u2019s indictment<\/a> might amount to nothing more than naming and shaming Russia. That\u2019s because no one expects the Kremlin to play along with the U.S. indictment. <\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine the Russian government is going to hand over the two FSB officers,\u201d said Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security strategy at SentinelOne. <\/p>\n “Even in the most successful investigations, state hackers are still immune from prosecution or retaliation,” said Kenneth Geers, a research scientist at security firm Comodo. <\/p>\n The two officers, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, work for Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service (FSB), the country\u2019s intelligence agency, according to the indictment. They allegedly recruited a pair of third-party hackers to breach<\/a> Yahoo and steal information on 500 million user accounts and helped the hackers carry out the crime. <\/p>\n The likelihood Russia would give up either agent is low, given that spies usually know state secrets. <\/p>\n Three of the suspects allegedly involved in the Yahoo data breach.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The indictment is more about sending a symbolic message to Russia, said Mark Kuhr, CTO at security firm Synack and a former National Security Agency network analyst. <\/p>\n \u201cFrom Russia\u2019s perspective, it does hurt them a bit,\u201d he said. The U.S. is “embarrassing them in the news.\u201d <\/p>\n It also exposes the FSB agents and hackers allegedly involved in the Yahoo breach, forcing them to tread lightly. The U.S. has issued warrants for their arrest. The fourth suspect, a third-party hacker named Karim Baratov, was already caught in Canada. <\/p>\n In addition, the indictment shows that U.S. investigators can track Russian cyberespionage operations. <\/p>\n \u201cYou can try and hide in the corners of the dark web, but we will hunt you down,\u201d said<\/a> FBI special agent John Bennett at a press conference on Wednesday. <\/p>\n But it\u2019ll take more than just naming and shaming to dissuade the Kremlin from sponsoring future cyberattacks, experts said. <\/p>\n \u201cMore needs to be done,\u201d said Edward McAndrew, a former federal cybercrime prosecutor who now works at law firm Ballard Spahr. \u201cWe have to move beyond the indictment stage.\u201d <\/p>\n The next stage might go beyond the legal realm and into geopolitical steps like sanctions or even cyberwarfare, he said. <\/p>\n Of course, two can play at that game. It’s possible that Russia might indict U.S. agents it suspects in a hacking case — not that it would have any more luck prosecuting them. <\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t be surprised if that happens,\u201d McAndrew said. \u201cI imagine that our government, and most governments, will not be handing over their intelligence operatives.\u201d <\/p>\n http:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/category\/security\/index.rss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2017 03:52:00 -0700<\/strong><\/p>\n In a rare move, the U.S. has indicted two Russian government agents for their suspected involvement in a massive Yahoo data breach. But what now?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n