The US government is reportedly about to charge hackers for the Yahoo attacks

US Justice Department officials are expected to announce indictments on Wednesday against suspects in at least one of a series of hacking attacks on Yahoo, according to a source briefed on the matter.

The accused men live in Russia and Canada, the source said, with the Canadian far more likely to face arrest. Russia has no extradition treaty with the United States.

It isn't clear which Yahoo hack the group is suspected of. The internet firm was first hacked in September 2016, affecting 500 million email accounts. A second hack affected 1 billion user accounts.

The indictments were first reported by Bloomberg. Yahoo and the Justice Department declined to comment.

The two hacks have caused a major headache for Yahoo as it sells off its business to Verizon.

Verizon initially tried to get a massive price cut on the deal of $925 million (£757 million) after news broke of the hacks, according to reports. It eventually managed a discount of $350 million (£287 million) in what had been a $4.83 billion (£3.96 billion) deal.

Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, won't keep the top job at the combined entity once the deal with Verizon closes. That new company, Altaba, will instead be led by Thomas McInerney, the former CFO of IAC. Mayer's position remains unclear. Mayer is also not being paid her 2016 bonus, worth up to $2 million, after the hacks.