In the United States, two Russian intelligence agents and a duo of hackers were indicted today over a data breach that compromised 500 million Yahoo accounts in one of the largest cyberattacks in history.'<br/>'<br/>The indictment announced by the US Justice Department links Russia's top spy agency, the FSB, to the massive hacking operation which began in 2014 with the twin goals of espionage<br/>and financial gain. It comes amid a high-stakes investigation into Russian cyber-meddling in the US election, potentially aimed at boosting the campaign of President Donald Trump.'<br/>'<br/>The Russian agents were identified as Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, both members of the successor agency to<br/>Russia's KGB. Dokuchaev was an officer in the FSB Center for Information Security, known as "Center 18," which is tasked with investigating hacking and is the FBI's point of contact<br/>in Moscow for cyber crimes.''<br/>'<br/>The two officers "protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer<br/>intrusions in the United States and elsewhere," acting assistant attorney general Mary McCord told reporters.'<br/>'<br/>FBI executive assistant director Paul Abbate said the agency has asked Moscow for assistance in apprehending the<br/>suspects but noted that "we have had limited cooperation with that element of the Russian government."<br/>'<br/>In Russia a high-level official quoted by Russian news agencies said that "Washington did not communicate with Moscow about this issue through the available channels set up to address issues related to cybersecurity."<br/>'<br/>The attack on Yahoo, disclosed last year, was one of the largest ever data breaches and at the time was blamed on a<br/>"nation-state" attacker. <br/>