U.S. Charges Russian Hacker Nikulin With Stealing Data From LinkedIn
The United States has charged a Russian with hacking and stealing information from computers at LinkedIn and other San Francisco Bay Area companies.
A grand jury indicted Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Nikulin, 29, of Moscow, on multiple charges including computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco said on October 21.
Nikulin sent a program to a LinkedIn employee's computer, stole the employee's username and password and used them to access the company's computers in 2012, according to prosecutors.
Nikulin is also accused of hacking two other companies, Dropbox and Formspring, and conspiring to sell stolen user names, passwords, and e-mail addresses of Formspring customers.
He was arrested on October 5 in the Czech Republic and remains there. Russian officials have said they are working to prevent his extradition to the United States.
LinkedIn has linked Nikulin to the 2012 breach and said it resulted in more than 100 million of its users' passwords being compromised, prompting a massive password reset operation.
The indictment said Nikulin had three unnamed co-conspirators, one of whom offered to sell the stolen Formspring user information for 5,500 euros.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters