Security News > 2020 > September > Russian hacker, described as 'brilliant' by judge, gets seven years in a US clink for raiding LinkedIn, Dropbox

A Russian scumbag found guilty of hacking into LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Formspring - and stealing data on over 200 million users - has been sent down for more than seven years.

Yevgeniy Nikulin was sentenced to 88 months in an American prison by a federal court in San Francisco this week though the judge in this case, William Alsup, was surprisingly kind about the 32-year-old Russian.

His trial in the US was dogged by delays: first by Russian authorities who tried to prevent him being extradited to America, then following a lengthy dispute over whether he was mentally fit to stand trial.

"Let's say Mr Nikulin were released today and went back to Russia. The only thing he knows how to do is hack into computers. How can we be assured that when he got back there, out of the reach of US authorities, that he wouldn't go back to doing it all over again?" the judge said.

Nikulin is likely to serve just over two years in US jail before returning to Russia, where, the judge hopes he will go straight.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/09/30/linkedin_hacker_prison/