Russian Who Hacked LinkedIn, Dropbox Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison

Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Nikulin, 32, of Moscow hacked
into servers belonging to three American social media firms,
including LinkedIn, Dropbox, and now-defunct social-networking firm
Formspring, and stole data on over 200 million users.

Between March and July 2012, Nikulin hacked into the computers
of LinkedIn, Dropbox,
and Formspring^[4], and installed malware
on them, which allowed him to remotely download user databases of
over 117
Million LinkedIn^[5] users and more
than 68
Million Dropbox^[6] users.

According to the prosecutor, Nikulin also worked with unnamed
co-conspirators of a Russian-speaking cybercriminal forum to sell
customer data he stole as a result of his hacks.

Besides hacking into the three social media firms, Nikulin has
also been accused of gaining access to LinkedIn and Formspring
employees’ credentials, which helped him carry out the computer
hacks.

“The Court also found that Automattic, parent company of
Wordpress.com, was the victim of an intrusion by defendant,
although there was no evidence that defendant stole any customer
credentials,” the Justice Department said.

Nikulin was arrested in
Prague^[7] on October 5, 2016,
by Interpol agents working in collaboration with the FBI,
and extradited to the United States^[8] in March 2018 after
a long extradition battle^[9] between the U.S.
and Russia.

In 2016, the hacker was charged with nine felony counts^[10] of computer
intrusion, aggravated identity theft, causing damage to a protected
computer, trafficking in unauthorized access devices, and
conspiracy.

However, after a long delay of trials due to the coronavirus
pandemic, Nikulin was found guilty by a federal jury of the United
States in early July this year and was sentenced to 88 months in
prison on September 29.

U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup convicted Nikulin of
selling stolen usernames and passwords, installing malware on
protected computers, conspiracy, computer intrusion, and aggravated
identity theft.

Prior to the sentencing hearing on September 29, federal
prosecutors sought a sentence of 145 months in prison, that’s over
12 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and
restitution.

Nikulin has been in U.S. custody since his extradition from the
Czech Republic and will be serving his sentence effect
immediately.