Canadian Man Pleads Guilty to Hacking Gmail Accounts for the Kremlin
Source: The Daily Beast
Karim Baratov didn’t know he was doing work for Russia’s FSB when he cracked eight passwords of government officials for $100 apiece.
KEVIN POULSEN
11.28.17 9:29 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO—A 22-year-old man who ran a successful hacker-for-hire business from his home in Toronto pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and identity theft charges Tuesday, admitting in open court that he cracked account passwords at Gmail on behalf of a customer who turned out to be an officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.
Karim Baratov’s guilty plea is a minor milestone in U.S. efforts against the Kremlin’s hacking operations in the wake of last year’s election interference campaign. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he likely faces between 7 to 8 years in prison when he’s sentenced in February.
Baratov, a Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, became involved with Russia through a black market hacking service he offered that would obtain other people’s Gmail passwords for an advertised rate of $60 per account. An FSB officer, using a pseudonym, offered him a premium rate of $100-a-head to hit a total of 80 targets over time, including people in other Russian agencies, and government officials in neighboring Eastern European nations.
Only eight of the hack attempts were successful, according to Baratov’s defense lawyers, who say Baratov never knew he was working for the Kremlin. “He had no idea until the indictment was unsealed,” said attorney Robert Fantone.
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/canadian-man-pleads-guilty-to-hacking-gmail-accounts-for-the-kremlin
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