Category Archives: formspring

Russian Cybersecurity Executive Arrested for Alleged Role in 2012 Megahacks

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Nikita Kislitsin, formerly the head of network security for one of Russia’s top cybersecurity firms, was arrested last week in Kazakhstan in response to 10-year-old hacking charges from the U.S. Department of Justice. Experts say Kislitsin’s prosecution could soon put the Kazakhstan government in a sticky diplomatic position, as the Kremlin is already signaling that it intends to block his extradition to the United States. Continue reading Russian Cybersecurity Executive Arrested for Alleged Role in 2012 Megahacks→

Dropbox, Linkedin hacker sentenced to 7 years in prison

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By Deeba Ahmed
Yevgeniy Nikulin aka Linkedin hacker, a Russian national was found guilty of hacking into LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Formspring.
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Dropbox, Linkedin hacker sentenced to 7 years in prison
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LinkedIn hacker Nikulin sentenced to 7 years in prison after years of legal battles

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One of the most-watched cybercrime cases in recent memory has come to a close. A U.S. judge on Tuesday sentenced Yevgeniy Nikulin to 88 months in prison, or more than seven years, in prison, capping an international legal drama that’s involved three countries over a span of eight years. Prosecutors had requested nearly 12 years in prison. A jury in California found Nikulin, now 33, guilty in July of hacking LinkedIn and Formspring in a pair of 2012 data breaches in which he stole credentials belonging to 117 million Americans. He was charged in 2016 with felony counts including computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft for stealing Americans’ usernames and passwords, then trying to sell them to other members of a Russian-speaking cybercriminal forum. “This is a hard one because when he returns [to Russia] I think he will return to being a hacker again,” Judge William Alsup said during. […]

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Man who lived luxury lifestyle after hacking LinkedIn and Dropbox is found guilty

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A US District court in California has found a Russian hacker guilty of breaking into the networks of LinkedIn, Dropbox, and the now defunct social network Formspring, and selling their user databases on the computer underground. In October 2016, Yevgen… Continue reading Man who lived luxury lifestyle after hacking LinkedIn and Dropbox is found guilty→

Judge in trial of alleged LinkedIn hacker admits doubt in evidence

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Just when U.S. attorneys may have thought they were free of obstacles in their case against an alleged Russian hacker, a new one has emerged: the judge presiding over the trial. Judge William Alsup openly criticized U.S. Attorney Michelle Kane on Tuesday, as the trial of Yevgeniy Nikulin resumed amid the coronavirus pandemic. Nikulin is charged with an array of hacking-related crimes in connection with 2012 breaches at LinkedIn, Formspring and Dropbox, in which he allegedly stole 117 million usernames and passwords, then tried to sell them to others. Through the trial, Alsup has questioned the government’s evidence against Nikulin. In March, after prosecutors questioned a witness about how Nikulin allegedly accessed stolen usernames and passwords to infiltrate the Formspring site, Alsup told prosecutors they risked boring the jury with “excruciating detail that seems irrelevant.” He went on to wonder whether the Department of Justice “had some magic witness” who […]

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Coronavirus delays trial of alleged Russian hacker a third time

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Justice has already been slow in this case, and the pandemic isn’t helping: His trial has been postponed for a third time. Continue reading Coronavirus delays trial of alleged Russian hacker a third time→

FSB asset introduced LinkedIn hacker, future Group-IB executive in 2012, U.S. alleges

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Attorneys are using the trial of a man who allegedly stole more than 100 million usernames and passwords from U.S. social media companies to hint at the murky, long-rumored relationships between Russian cybercriminals and the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies. Yevgeniy Nikulin, a 32-year-old St. Petersburg, Russia native, currently is on trial in San Francisco, accused of hacking into LinkedIn, Formspring and Dropbox in 2012 and obtaining 117 million users credentials. Roughly 30 million of those credentials were taken from Formspring. Prosecutors say he worked with a number of co-conspirators to gather and attempt to sell that data, including Nikita Kislitsin, who allegedly tried selling stolen Formspring data before he became an executive at Group-IB, and Alexsey Belan, a Russian man who made the introduction between Nikulin and Kislitin. In a recent filing, the government reproduced an email conversation in which, prosecutors say, Kislitsin was trying to sell the stolen Formspring data, and wanted Belan […]

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Indictment appears to name Group-IB executive in scheme to sell hacked data

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The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday unsealed a 2014 indictment that appears to accuse a current cybersecurity executive in an alleged conspiracy to sell usernames and passwords belonging to American customers of the social media company Formspring in 2012. The man identified in the indictment, Nikita Kislitsin, allegedly received data stolen from Formspring, then tried to sell that information to others. A man with the same name is currently listed as head of network security at Group-IB, a cybersecurity vendor with offices in Moscow and Singapore. CyberScoop has reached out to Group-IB to determine if Kislitsin is still an employee. The company did not provide a response as of Thursday morning, Eastern U.S. time. U.S. prosecutors have not alleged any wrongdoing by Group-IB. The Department of Justice’s office in the Northern District of California did not respond to requests for comment seeking clarification. Kistlitsin did not return messages seeking comment. Ties to @Udalite U.S. prosecutors say Nikita Kislitsin […]

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LinkedIn hacking suspect refuses to cooperate with his lawyers

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Yevgeniy Nikulin, the Russian hacker accused of stealing data from three United States-based tech firms, is uncooperative in his own defense, one of his lawyers said Tuesday. Nikulin, 30, is accused of hacking into LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring and siphoning data tied to over 100 million individuals. He was arrested in October 2016 and, following a lengthy geopolitical battle, was extradited from the Czech Republic to the U.S. in March. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Nikulin is refusing to speak substantively about his own criminal defense, detainment or mental health, according to Valery Nechay, a lawyer on his defense team. He was placed in solitary confinement after an alleged escape attempt and multiple physical confrontations with U.S. Marshals. He is currently on suicide watch largely due to his non-cooperation, his lawyer explained. The defense is actively exploring a full psychiatric examination. Nechay said she can’t tell if Nikulin’s refusal to cooperate is a […]

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Jury trial against extradited Russian hacking suspect will begin in January

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The criminal jury trial against Yevgeniy Nikulin, the Russian hacker accused of stealing data from LinkedIn and other U.S.-based tech firms, will begin in January, United States District  Judge William Alsup ordered on Tuesday. The decision was a denial of the defense’s entreaties to delay the beginning of the case. Nikulin’s lawyers say they have not been able to adequately prepare for trial in the time allotted to them by the court. “No, we need to get the trial moving,” Alsup said, apparently unmoved. “This case is drifting, progress is not being made at a fast enough pace.” The exact date will be decided upon soon after prosecutors and defense counsel discuss the issue. Alsup gave the lawyers just a few weeks leeway in proposing a start time. The defense cites the “voluminous discovery, including several terabytes of server logs and Internet service provider records” along with “thousands of pages of reports and analysis” that prosecutors produced […]

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