EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Karim Baratov, a 23-year-old hacker, was sentenced today to five years in prison and fined $250,000 for his role in the 2014 Yahoo data breach.

Baratov, who is a Canadian citizen, was relied on for his ability to break into web-based email accounts. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Mr. Baratov wasn’t believed to have been involved in the Yahoo hack itself but was a hacker-for-hire used as part of a broader information-gathering operation tied to Russia, according to prosecutors.”

Quoting a federal court filing, Reuters writes, “The targeted victims were of interest to Russian intelligence” and included “prominent leaders in the commercial industries and senior government officials (and their counselors) of Russia and countries bordering Russia.”

The US Department of Justice announced charges against Baratov, two members of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), and one other person back in March 2017. However, Baratov was the only one arrested. It is believed he broke into at least 11,000 web email accounts between 2010 and 2017.

Get the full story at The Wall Street Journal.