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Yevgeniy Nikulin
was arrested on Oct. 5 by officials in the Czech Republic and
remains in custody in Prague, the Justice Department said in a
news release.
LinkedIn said at the time of his arrest that it was related to a
2012 breach at the social networking company that may have
compromised credentials of 100 million users, prompting a
massive password reset operation.
It was not immediately clear if U.S. officials had begun
extradition proceedings to have Nikulin, who was indicted on
Thursday by a federal grand jury in Oakland, California, brought
to the United States to stand trial.
According to the DOJ, Nikulin is accused of accessing computers
belonging to LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring and obtaining
information from them.
The U.S. attorneys office could not immediately be reached for
further comment. It was not yet clear who would be representing
Nikulin in the proceedings.
He is also alleged to have used credentials of LinkedIn and
Formspring employees in connection with the computer intrusions.
Further, Nikulin is alleged to have engaged in a conspiracy with
unnamed co-conspirators to traffic stolen Formspring user
credentials.
The indictment charges Nikulin with three counts of computer
intrusion, two counts of intentional transmission of
information, code, or command causing damage to a protected
computer; two counts of aggravated identity theft; one count of
trafficking in unauthorized access devices; and one count of
conspiracy.
(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington and Dan Whitcomb in Los
Angeles; Editing by Eric Walsh and Diane Craft)
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