US regulators to indict Yahoo hack attackers

US officials plan to issue indictments related to the hacking attacks against Yahoo! Inc, Bloomberg reported, citing a source.

The Department of Justice plans to indict four people over massive online security breaches that compromised hundreds of millions of user accounts, the report said. The hacks were revealed last year and had threatened to stymie the sale of Yahoo's web operations to Verizon Communications Inc.

One of the persons would be arrested in Canada as soon as Tuesday, according to the person, while three of the persons were currently in Russia, the person said.

The development comes after Verizon insisted on a price reduction for its planned deal, which was first announced in July (See:Verizon pushing for $1-bn discount on deal to buy Yahoo).

Verizon had planned to acquire Yahoo's key internet assets including its finance, sports and other websites. The deal value was finally trimmed by $350 million to $4.48 billion.

Yahoo had suffered two major breaches in 2013 and 2014. Yahoo had not been able to identify the intrusion associated with the 2013 breach, according to a filing this month.

Yahoo also said it believed that the culprit of the 2014 hack was a ''state-sponsored actor.'' However, two people, at the time the breach was revealed said a link to a nation-state was not iron-clad.