Canadian accused of hacking Yahoo emails for Russia gets five year prison sentence

A Canadian accused of hacking Yahoo email accounts on behalf of the Russian government has been sentenced to five years in a U.S. prison.

Twenty-three-year-old Karim Baratov from Hamilton, Ontario pleaded guilty in November to nine felony hacking charges, admitting to illegally accessing thousands of email accounts over a seven-year period.

Baratov said he tricked customers into entering their credentials into a fake password reset page.

Federal prosecutors claim that the Kazakhstan-born Baratov was paid by the Russian government to gain access to 80 email accounts, including 50 Google accounts. Baratov would then allegedly sell any sensitive information he obtained to Dmitry Dokuchaev, a notorious cybercriminal.

In court, Baratov apologized for his actions and said he will try to do better.

“The last 14 months have been a very humbling and eye-opening experience,” he told U.S. Judge Vince Chhabria. “There is no excuse for my actions,” he said, adding that “all I can do is promise to be a better man.”

In addition to the prison sentence, Chhabria has also fined Baratov $250,000 USD.

Via: The Financial Post