back to article Guilty: Russian miscreant who hacked LinkedIn, Dropbox, Formspring, stole 200-million-plus account records

The Russian hacker accused of raiding LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring, and obtaining data on 213 million user accounts, has been found guilty. On Friday, Yevgeniy Nikulin was convicted [PDF] by a San Francisco jury of committing computer intrusion, data theft, and other charges [PDF] relating to the databases he broke into …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Just a side note

    The FBI managed to track him down without a backdoor (or facial recognition).

    Just good old fashioned police work

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Just a side note

      >The FBI managed to track him down without a backdoor (or facial recognition).

      Wouldn't be so sure about that, suspect somewhere in all the 'evidence' you'll find some "anonymous tip off" that resulted in the FBI just so happening to discover his IP address, location of his servers etc. etc.

      Remember the prosecution only release the 'evidence' after they have constructed the evidence trial, not before. Expect also that they had numerous other negative accusations that weren't evidenced but were only there to help them portray the guy as a bad one for the benefit of the jury...

      As you say, the stitch-up is just good old fashioned police work...

    3. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Just a side note

      Rereading the article and also reading the indictment, the fingerprints of the NSA are all over the evidence. The smoking gun is revealed by the statement:

      The FBI in response said that it had tracked Nikulin down to his Moscow apartment by following the hacker’s IP addresses and then confirmed it was him by observing his communications with others.

      Remember Moscow is in Russia and I would assume Nikulin's Interent connection doesn't use a static IP address, so his ISP's systems would need to have been accessed...

      Interestingly, no information is given about the identities of the three Co-conspirators - either online or physical.

  2. Cuddles

    Metally fit

    "a lengthy dispute over whether he was mentally fit to stand trial"

    It's amazing how many people are able to functional perfectly well their entire life, but develop crippling mental illness the instant they see a court room.

    1. DishonestQuill

      Re: Metally fit

      Given the length of sentence possible under the CFAA and the conditions in US prisons, can you really blame them? When was the last time you heard someone fight extradition to Denmark or Germany for hacking related charges?

      Things have improved since Attica but I think I'd prefer a long term stay in a mental institution to even 1 year in a US federal prison.

      1. First Light

        Re: Metally fit

        He'll end up in Club Fed with the other white-collar crims who have it easier than in regular federal pens.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "American law enforcement will respond to that threat regardless of where it originates"

    I can think of two countries, offhand, where that statement would clearly be erroneous, America itself being one of them.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    >> "The prosecution outlined how Nikulin had stolen the login credentials of employees at a bunch of US tech firms, and then used them to access back-end systems before downloading vast amounts of personal data that he later sold. " <<

    Then he's not a hacker.

    1. Halfmad

      A hacker is someone who uses a computer to gain unauthorised access to information etc.

      He is a hacker, doesn't matter the method he used was a bit weak from an intrusion perspective.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Privacy?

    “.....direct threat to the security and privacy of Americans.”

    Privacy? Apart from the US security services of course

    Pot - kettle

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