The indictment charges two officers of the FSB, Russia's Federal Security Service, and two hackers who allegedly worked hand-in-hand with them to crack 500 million Yahoo user accounts. US authorities and cyber security specialists have long said the Kremlin employs criminal hackers for its geostrategic purposes. They say the arrangement offers deniability to Moscow and freedom from legal troubles for the hackers. A US intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said employing criminal hackers helps "complement Kremlin intentions and provide plausible deniability for the Russian state." The United States sometimes engages with criminal hackers as well, buying tools from them or recruiting them to help find other criminal hackers, cyber security professionals and government officials say.

Source: Egypt Independent March 16, 2017 03:56 UTC