Category Archives: William Alsup

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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Prosecutors hand over terabytes of evidence in case against Russian charged with LinkedIn breach

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U.S. prosecutors say they have an exceptionally large mountain of evidence in their case against Yevgeniy Nikulin, the Russian hacker accused of stealing data from LinkedIn and other American tech firms. The government is preparing to hand over the evidence to Nikulin’s lawyers, a discovery process that will take at least two months because of the sheer amount of data involved. “There is quite a bit of discovery in this case,” prosecutor Michelle Kane said. “Just one set of logs alone related to one of the victims will be about three terabytes, plus tens of thousands of other pages of discovery.” Nikulin’s lawyers, including Arkady Bukh, requested and received two months time to review the evidence as they build a defense for their client. The next hearing will take place on June 26. Judge William Alsup, who was clearly energetic in his desire to move the case along as quickly as possible, aims to […]

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