Canadian man to plead guilty for role in 2014 Yahoo hack: report

A Canadian man charged for his alleged role in a 2014 Yahoo breach is expected to plead guilty in U.S. federal court.

Reuters reported Friday that Karim Baratov is set to appear in court in San Francisco on Tuesday for his plea hearing. He is accused of helping Russian hackers steal information for 500 million Yahoo accounts.

Baratov, 22, was born in Kazakhstan, but is a Canadian citizen. The U.S. Justice Department charged him and three others in March for their role in the breach. Baratov waived his right to fight extradition to the U.S. from Canada.

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Baratov is the only person who has been arrested in connection with the breach so far. He pleaded not guilty in August to aggravated identity theft, conspiring to commit computer fraud, conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiring to commit access device fraud.

The hearing scheduled for Tuesday is listed as a “change of plea” hearing, according to Reuters.

Two officers with Russia’s Federal Security Service who were charged in the case allegedly paid hackers to obtain information from the accounts. 

After the officers learned that one of their targets had an account not associated with Yahoo, they brought on Baratov to breach at least 80 email accounts, prosecutors allege.