Lol.Us charges filed in largest Internet breach on record

US authorities Friday unveiled charges against two Vietnamese nationals and one Canadian in connection with a computer fraud scheme to steal more than one billion email addresses.


The episode was the largest known data breach of names and email addresses and was the subject of a 2011 congressional inquiry, officials said.
Indictments in the case accuse two Vietnamese nationals of hacking into at least eight major email services from February 2009 to June 2012 and stealing the email addresses that were then used for various spam and marketing schemes.
The scheme netted at least $2 million from the marketing of various products and services, according to the US Justice Department.
Those charged with hacking were Viet Quoc Nguyen, 28, and Giang Hoang Vu, 25, both Vietnamese nationals.
The charges were unsealed following the arrest of David-Manuel Santos Da Silva, 33, of Montreal, Canada, who is accused of conspiracy to commit money laundering for helping Nguyen and Vu to generate revenue from the scheme and launder the proceeds.
"These men—operating from Vietnam, the Netherlands and Canada—are accused of carrying out the largest data breach of names and e-mail addresses in the history of the Internet," said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell.