Russian spies blamed for massive Yahoo! hack

UPDATED (12:05 p.m. ET): Updated to include statement from Yahoo! on indictments.

Another major hack, another Russian spy story.

This time the focus is on the massive 2014 hack of Yahoo! that resulted in the collection of information about 500 million users. According to the Washington Post, Russian intelligence members hired two hackers to help them with the Yahoo! dirty work.

On Wednesday, if all goes as reported, the Department of Justice (DOJ) will announce charges against Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin -- who happen to have worked in cyber investigations for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) -- and the two hackers.

The hackers are Alexsey Belan -- one of two hackers hit by U.S. sanctions following Russia's interference in the U.S. election, alongside real-life bond villain Evgeniy Bogachev -- and Karim Baratov. According to the Post, the charges include, "hacking, wire fraud, trade secret theft and economic espionage."

Yahoo didn't disclose the 2014 hack until September 2016, which resulted in an investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The investigation put Yahoo!'s proposed sale to Verizon in jeopardy, and cost CEO Marrissa Mayer a lot of coin (and her job).

Officials are still investigating if the four suspects are connected to that other massive Yahoo! data breach in 2013.

In a statement posted online on Wednesday after the charges were announced, Yahoo's Chris Madsen, Assistant General Counsel, Head of Global Law Enforcement, Security & Safety said, "The indictment unequivocally shows the attacks on Yahoo were state-sponsored... We appreciate the FBI’s diligent investigative work and the DOJ’s decisive action to bring to justice those responsible for the crimes against Yahoo and its users."

According to the Post, Wednesday's charges are not connected to either the 2016 Democratic National Committee hack or the ongoing investigation in to Russia's alleged interference of the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections.