Breaking News: The U.S. charged 2 Russian spies and 2 others in a 2014 breach of 500 million Yahoo accounts that included the theft of personal data

Federal prosecutors announced charges against four men, including two Russian intelligence agents, on Wednesday for their roles in a conspiracy that led to the 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts, one of the largest known data breaches.

The four men together face 47 criminal charges, including conspiracy, computer fraud, economic espionage, theft of trade secrets and aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department said in a news release.

The two agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the F.S.B., who were charged are Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev, 33, a Russian national and resident, and Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, 43, a Russian national and resident. The other two defendants are Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan, 29, a Russian national and resident; and Karim Baratov, 22, a Canadian and Kazakh national and a resident of Canada.

“The criminal conduct at issue, carried out and otherwise facilitated by officers from an FSB unit that serves as the FBI’s point of contact in Moscow on cybercrime matters, is beyond the pale,” the acting assistant attorney general, Mary B. McCord, said in a statement.

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