America is nabbing Russian hackers when they are 'dopey enough to take a vacation'

In the last year, the United States has arrested at least five Russian hackers while they were vacationing abroad, snatching up the accused criminals in Barcelona, Prague, Latvia, and Greece, The Associated Press and Axios report.

"We are still not really good at [arresting Russian hackers]," the Center for Strategic and International Relations' Jim Lewis told Axios, noting that it is difficult to "deal with a state when they are a proxy for a criminal."

"But one tactic that works is snatching Russians when they are dopey enough to take a vacation," Lewis added.

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While the hackers have not been tied to Moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, "the arrests are intended as a U.S. message that Russia's increasingly intelligent cyberwar cannot be carried out with impunity," Axios writes.