Justice Department reportedly ready to charge 4 hackers in Yahoo breach

The U.S. Department of Justice is ready to indict four people related to a hack of Yahoo affecting “hundreds of millions” of users, according to a Bloomberg report. I’ve reached out to the DOJ for confirmation and more details.

(Update: The indictments are not confirmed to be in relation to the 2013 hack affecting a billion users, as this article erroneously read earlier. It could also be related to a separate 2014 hack affecting some 500 million accounts.)

Citing someone briefed on the indictments, Bloomberg reports that one of the alleged hackers is currently in Canada, and may face instant arrest. The other three are apparently in Russia, which does complicate things.

Yahoo recently revealed in testimony to a Senate committee that it was in cooperation with state, federal and foreign governments regarding breaches in 2013 and 2014 that affected more than a billion accounts — which seems only logical considering the volume of data compromised. Apparently the efforts have borne fruit.

(Disclosure: Verizon, which owns Aol, which owns TechCrunch, is in the process of buying Yahoo.)