A Canadian national and resident pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of computer hacking and other criminal offenses related to helping Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to access webmail accounts.
Karim Baratov, also known as Kay, Karim Taloverov, and Karim Akehmet Tokbergenov, was charged along with three other defendants, including two officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s domestic law enforcement and intelligence service. Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev, Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin and Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan, all Russian nationals and residents, remain at large in Russia.
The indictment alleges that when Dokuchaev, Sushchin, and Belan desired access to individual webmail accounts of interest to the FSB, Dokuchaev tasked Baratov to compromise them. Baratov would later send Dokuchaev the accounts’ passwords in exchange for money.
Baratov pleaded guilty to count one and counts 40 through 47 of the indictment. He also admitted to hacking more than 11,000 webmail accounts in total on behalf of FSB officers and other customers from in or around 2010 until his arrest by Canadian authorities in March 2017.
“This case is a prime example of the hybrid cyber threat we’re facing, in which nation states work with criminal hackers to carry out malicious activities,” Paul Abbate, executive assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, said. “Today’s guilty plea illustrates how the FBI continues to work relentlessly with our private sector, law enforcement and international partners to identify and hold accountable those who conduct cyber attacks against our nation, no matter who they’re working with or where they attempt to hide.”
Baratov used spearphishing tactics to compromise the accounts in which he would send users an email that appeared to be from the webmail provider, which would take them to websites that looked like the webmail provider’s site and prompt them to enter their passwords.
Baratov waived extradition from Canada and is being detained in California without bail. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 20, 2018, before the Honorable Vincent Chhabria, U.S. District Court Judge, in San Francisco.