Russian Indicted For Hacking LinkedIn, Dropbox, Others

Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Nikulin faces charges including computer intrusion, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy

SAN FRANCISCO—A federal grand jury in Oakland has indicted a 29-year-old Russian man suspected of hacking into three Bay Area technology companies: LinkedIn Corp. , Dropbox Inc. and Formspring Inc., a now-defunct social-networking company.

Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Nikulin, of Moscow, faces charges including computer intrusion, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy, according to the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco.

On Oct. 19, 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that a suspected Russian hacker had been arrested in the Czech Republic, and that the U.S. is seeking his extradition to face trial in San Francisco.

Friday’s indictment revealed details of the alleged hacks, including other companies involved, as well as Mr. Nikulin’s identity. Mr. Nikulin was arrested Oct. 4 by officials in the Czech Republic, federal officials said. U.S. authorities plan to seek his extradition from the Czech Republic as soon as possible.

LinkedIn spokeswoman said Friday. LinkedIn was hacked in 2012, as well as earlier this year said the breach was much larger than suspected, with more than 100 million usernames and passwords taken.

“We appreciate the ongoing work by the FBI to pursue those responsible for the 2012 breach of LinkedIn member information, we will continue to engage with law enforcement as this case develops.”

Earlier this year Dropbox, the online-storage site said it was forcing some users to reset passwords after discovering some 68 million usernames and passwords had been stolen in a 2012 attack.

According to the indictment Mr. Nikulin is also accused of trying to sell Formspring user credential database for €5,500 (approx $7,000 USD) in 2012, via unnamed co-conspirators. Formspring, was a social-media site where users could ask or answer questions about anything, the company stopped operations in March 2013.

To make things just a bit harder, Russia won’t extradite its citizens to the U.S. and the Russian government has said it expects Mr. Nikulin to be returned to Russia, and not face trial in the U.S.

Russian criminal organizations are a major source of U.S. companies being hacked, but it can be difficult for the U.S. to catch such suspects if they don’t leave their home country.