Yevgeniy Alexandrovich Nikulin (Евгений Александрович Никулин) is a Russian computer

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

. He was arrested in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in October 2016, and was charged with the hacking and data theft of several U.S. technology companies. In September 2020, he was sentenced to 88 months in prison.

Hacking career

In 2012, Nikulin was alleged to be part of a criminal clique involving a Ukrainian national, Oleksandr Ieremenko.

Arrest

Czech police arrested Nikulin in Prague on October 5, 2016, in connection with the 2012 hacking and data theft of

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropb ...

, and

Formspring Spring.me was a social networking service. Until a rebranding in 2013, it was known as Formspring, a question-and-answer-based social network launched in 2009 by Ade Olonoh, the founder of online form builder Formstack. As of August 1, 2015, t ...

. According to a report by

TV Rain TV Rain ( rus, Дождь, Dozhd, p=ˈdoʂtʲ, a=Ru-дождь (doʂtʲ).ogg; stylized ДОДЬ) is an independent Russian television channel. It was launched in 2010 in Russia, and since 2022 was based in Latvia. It focuses on news, discussion ...

, his arrest may have been the result of a cooperative effort between the U.S. and

Sergei Mikhailov (FSB) Sergei Mikhailov () was deputy head of the FSB security agency’s Center for Information Security. In February 2019, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for treason. Early life Mikhailov was reportedly born and raised in Belarus and accepted ...

. U.S. authorities had previously been tipped off about Nikulin in April 2014.

Detention

On November 23, 2016, Russia requested Nikulin's extradition, citing a 2009 case that involved theft from the online payment system

WebMoney WebMoney is an online payment settlement system established in Russia in 1998. It is one of the largest electronic payments processors in Russia by number of users, with the company reporting 45 million registered accounts and 300,000 active week ...

. On February 7, 2017, a lawyer for Nikulin claimed that in mid-November 2016, as well as earlier that day, an FBI agent had visited Nikulin in

Pankrác Prison Pankrác Prison, officially Prague Pankrác Remand Prison (''Vazební věznice Praha Pankrác'' in Czech language, Czech), is a prison in Prague, Czech Republic. A part of the Czech Prison Service, it is located southeast of Prague city centre in ...

and had offered him cash, an apartment, U.S. citizenship, as well as all cyber charges against him dropped, if he would agree to confess to participating in the

2016 Democratic National Committee email leak The 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak is a collection of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails stolen by one or more hackers operating under the pseudonym "Guccifer 2.0" who are alleged to be Russian intelligence agency hackers, ...

. In late March 2018,

Paul Ryan Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member o ...

visited the Czech capital, where he urged authorities to grant Nikulin's extradition to the U.S.

Extradition

On March 30, 2018, Nikulin was extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Conviction

On July 10, 2020, Nikulin was convicted by a jury in a United States District Court in San Francisco on all but one of the counts.

Sentencing

On September 29, 2020, Nikulin was sentenced to 88 months in prison.

Controversy

Bryan Paarmaan, who was the then-

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

Deputy Assistant Director in the International Operations Division, admitted to leaking details of Nikulin's indictment to

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

reporter,

Del Quentin Wilber Del Quentin Wilber is an American journalist who writes for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He rejoined the paper in August 2018 as an enterprise and investigative reporter focusing on criminal justice and national security matters. He previously cove ...

, two days before Nikulin's indictment was unsealed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikulin, Yevgeniy Alexandrovich Hacking in the 2010s 1987 births Living people