Karim Baratov, a 23-year-old male from Kazakhstan living in Canda, was on Tuesday, sentenced to five years imprisonment in a plea bargain with prosecutors after he reportedly took part in devastating cyber attacks on Yahoo for Russian intelligence agents.
The deal struck by 23-year-old Karim Baratov, who immigrated to Canada from Kazakhstan, also resulted in a fine that “encompasses all his remaining assets,” the US Justice Department said in a statement.
Baratov was charged last year with hacking and commercial espionage and related crimes and has been in American custody since being extradited from Canada last year on a US warrant.
US authorities report that Russian intelligence agents contacted Baratov and another hacker to carry out attacks on Yahoo from 2014 to 2016.
The data breach compromised 500 million Yahoo accounts and is one of the largest cyberattacks in history.
“The sentence imposed reflects the seriousness of hacking for hire,” said prosecutor Alex Tse.
“Hackers such as Baratov ply their trade without regard for the criminal objectives of the people who hire and pay them.”
Targets included Russian and US government officials, cybersecurity, diplomatic and military personnel, journalists, companies and financial firms.
“It’s difficult to overstate the unprecedented nature of this conspiracy, in which members of a foreign intelligence service directed and empowered criminal hackers to conduct a massive cyber-attack against 500 million victim user accounts,” said John Bennett, FBI special agent in charge for the San Francisco field office.
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