Alleged Russian Hacker Detained in Prague
https://sp-security.blogspot.com/2017/02/alleged-russian-hacker-detained-in.html
Evgeniy
Nikulin was detained by Czech police on an Interpol arrest warrant
issued by US authorities back in October and currently faces extradition
requests from both Russia and the US. Nikulin, 29, a Russian citizen,
was arrested in a restaurant shortly after arriving in Prague during a
holiday with his girlfriend.
It
turned out that a federal court the US followed up with an indictment
charging Nikulin with hacking computer networks of LinkedIn, Dropbox and
Formspring. The US authorities formally requested his extradition to
the United States. Now the man faces up to 30 years of jail time and $1
million in fines if convicted on computer intrusion, conspiracy,
damaging computers, aggravated identity theft and trafficking in illegal
access devices.
Formspring is one of the websites Nikulin allegedly hacked, which is known as a platform used for sexting by Anthony Weiner, the former NY mayoral candidate and husband of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s closest aide. It is known that the discovery of emails linked to Clinton damaged her campaign in its final weeks after the FBI director revealed their existence. As such, the US believes that the hacker is linked to involvement in its elections.
However, the man appeared to be wanted not just in the United States – Russia has responded to its extradition request by tabling one of its own, claiming that Nikulin be returned to face allegations that he hacked another person’s bank account 8 years ago and stole about $20,000. The question is why he has never been formally accused at that time. Some believe that the reason is that he was recruited by the Russian security services, which offer alleged offenders immunity from prosecution in exchange for collaboration. They also believe that even if the man was not personally involved in the election hacking, he may know other hackers who were.
It is also known about the existence of sealed US court documents, tabled a few days after the original indictment against the alleged hacker, but their contents have not been revealed.
Nikulin denied both the US and Russian charges and claimed that he had become a political pawn, because it looks really strange that two superpowers accuse the same person of different crimes at the same time. As it usually happens with the IT criminals, the man has suffered health problems since his arrest.
Czech media speculated that FBI agents were going to travel to Prague to question the hacker in the presence of Czech authorities, though the FBI refused to confirm this information, only admitting that they were “aware of the situation”.
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Formspring is one of the websites Nikulin allegedly hacked, which is known as a platform used for sexting by Anthony Weiner, the former NY mayoral candidate and husband of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s closest aide. It is known that the discovery of emails linked to Clinton damaged her campaign in its final weeks after the FBI director revealed their existence. As such, the US believes that the hacker is linked to involvement in its elections.
However, the man appeared to be wanted not just in the United States – Russia has responded to its extradition request by tabling one of its own, claiming that Nikulin be returned to face allegations that he hacked another person’s bank account 8 years ago and stole about $20,000. The question is why he has never been formally accused at that time. Some believe that the reason is that he was recruited by the Russian security services, which offer alleged offenders immunity from prosecution in exchange for collaboration. They also believe that even if the man was not personally involved in the election hacking, he may know other hackers who were.
It is also known about the existence of sealed US court documents, tabled a few days after the original indictment against the alleged hacker, but their contents have not been revealed.
Nikulin denied both the US and Russian charges and claimed that he had become a political pawn, because it looks really strange that two superpowers accuse the same person of different crimes at the same time. As it usually happens with the IT criminals, the man has suffered health problems since his arrest.
Czech media speculated that FBI agents were going to travel to Prague to question the hacker in the presence of Czech authorities, though the FBI refused to confirm this information, only admitting that they were “aware of the situation”.
Posted by:
SaM
extratorrent
