Russian agents, hackers charged in massive Yahoo breach ADVERTISING Russian agents, hackers charged in massive Yahoo breach WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Russian intelligence agents and a pair of hired hackers have been charged in a devastating criminal breach at Yahoo
Russian agents, hackers charged in massive Yahoo breach
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Russian intelligence agents and a pair of hired hackers have been charged in a devastating criminal breach at Yahoo that affected at least a half billion user accounts, the Justice Department said Wednesday in bringing the first case of its kind against current Russian government officials.
In a scheme that prosecutors say blended intelligence gathering with old-fashioned financial greed, the four men targeted the email accounts of Russian and U.S. government officials, Russian journalists and employees of financial services and other private businesses, U.S. officials said.
Using in some cases a technique known as “spear-phishing” to dupe Yahoo users into thinking they were receiving legitimate emails, the hackers broke into at least 500 million accounts in search of personal information and financial data such as gift card and credit card numbers, prosecutors said.
“We will not allow individuals, groups, nation states or a combination of them to compromise the privacy of our citizens, the economic interests of our companies or the security of our country,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division.
One of the defendants, a Canadian and Kazakh national named Karim Baratov, has been taken into custody in Canada. Another, Alexsey Belan, is on the list of the FBI’s most wanted cyber criminals and has been indicted multiple times in the U.S. It’s not clear whether he or the other two defendants, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, will ever step foot in an American courtroom since there’s no extradition treaty with Russia.
Rutte claims victory over anti-Islam rival
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The outcome of the parliamentary election in the Netherlands was pretty straightforward, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte standing tall above everyone.
Rutte said his win against anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders stopped the “wrong sort of populism” in its tracks.
Addressing an election night gathering of supporters in the Hague, Rutte said “the Netherlands said ‘Whoa! Stop!’ to the wrong kind of populism” after Britain voted to leave the European Union and the United States elected Donald Trump as president,
Rutte, who is now poised for a third term as prime minister, said: “We want to stick to the course we have — safe and stable and prosperous.”
The main exit poll showed Rutte controlling 31 seats, and three parties each winning with 19 — the pro-EU center party D66, the Christian Democrat CDA and the Party for Freedom of anti-Islam nationalist Geert Wilders.
South Korea prosecutors to question ousted leader next week
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they plan to question ousted President Park Geun-hye next week over a corruption scandal that removed her from office, as the government announced that an election will be held on May 9 to pick her successor.
Park lost her presidential immunity from prosecution after the Constitutional Court ruled Friday to formally end her rule over allegations that she colluded with a longtime confidante to extort money from businesses and allowed her pull government strings from the shadows.
Prosecutors said they told Park’s lawyer that they’ll summon her next Tuesday as a suspect in the scandal. Park’s lawyer later said Park would “faithfully” undergo the questioning, according to a Seoul prosecutors’ office.
Dozens of high-profile figures including some top Park administration officials and Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong have already been indicted over the scandal.
Park could also face extortion, bribery and other criminal charges, but she has denied any legal wrongdoing and expressed defiance toward her corruption allegations.
“Although it will take time, I believe the truth will certainly come out,” Park said after leaving the presidential Blue House on Sunday.
Trump’s allies melting away on wiretapping claims
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s explosive allegation that Barack Obama wiretapped his New York skyscraper during the presidential campaign has left him increasingly isolated, with allies on Capitol Hill and within his own administration offering no evidence to back him up.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he had not given Trump any reason to believe he was wiretapped by President Obama. Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said he had seen no information to support the claim and then went further. He suggested the U.S. president’s assertion, made in a series of March 4 tweets, should not be taken at face value.
“Are you going to take the tweets literally?” Nunes said. “If so, clearly the president was wrong.”
But Trump, in an interview Wednesday with Fox News, predicted there would be “some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks.”
Trump’s allegations have put him in a potentially perilous position as congressional investigations into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election — and possible Russian contacts with Trump associates — ramp up. The FBI is also investigating.
Sex assault reports up at Navy, Army academies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Reports of sexual assaults increased at two of the three military academies last year and an anonymous survey suggests sexual misconduct rose across the board at the schools, The Associated Press has learned.
The new data underscore the challenge in stemming bad behavior by young people at the military college campuses, despite a slew of programs designed to prevent assaults, help victims and encourage them to come forward. The difficulties in some ways mirror those the larger military is struggling with amid revelations about Marines and other service members sharing nude photos on websites.
Assault reports rose at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, while dropping at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. The Air Force decline was sharp, going to 32 last year from 49 in 2015, contributing to an overall decrease in the overall number of reported assaults at the academies. The total reported cases fell to 86 from 91 in 2015, according to details obtained by The Associated Press.
Pentagon and military officials believe more people are reporting sexual assaults, which they see as a positive trend because it suggests students have more confidence in the system and greater willingness to seek help.
But the anonymous survey results suggest more assaults and crime occurring. They showed more than 12 percent of women and nearly 2 percent of men saying they experienced unwanted sexual contact.
12M enroll in health law Trump, GOP are trying to repeal
WASHINGTON (AP) — A substantial 12 million people have enrolled for coverage this year under the very health care statute that President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress want to erase, the government said Wednesday.
With a crunch-time House vote on a GOP bill replacing that law planned for next week, Vice President Mike Pence ensured conservative lawmakers that the administration was open to changes.
Pence’s trip to the Capitol, and an evening all-hands meeting of House Republicans to count votes, came as GOP leaders strained to win backing for besieged legislation that’s uniformly opposed by Democrats. The bill would strike down much of former President Barack Obama’s 2010 overhaul and reduce the federal role, including financing, for the nation’s health care consumers.
“Where is the sweet spot, that’s what we’re working on,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., among the conservatives who met with Pence. He said the vice president’s pitch was: “The process is open, we’re still working on it, bring your ideas forward and let’s get a bill done.”
With opposition from conservative and moderate GOP lawmakers endangering the measure in the House and Senate, President Donald Trump was expected to urge lawmakers to back the bill in remarks in Nashville, Tennessee. Health secretary Tom Price was using phone calls to lobby Republican governors, some of whom — with home-state GOP members of Congress — oppose the bill’s phaseout of Obama’s expansion of Medicaid to 11 million additional lower-income Americans.
