Russian man convicted of hacking LinkedIn, Dropbox gets 88-month sentence

A Russian man convicted of hacking was sentenced to more than seven years in a US prison for stealing personal information of more than 100 million users of LinkedIn, Dropbox and disused social media platform Formspring, according to federal prosecutors.

The 32-year-old man named, Yevgeniy Nikulin, was convicted in July after a six-day jury trial in San Francisco in what was said to be one of the biggest data breaches in US history.

Prosecutors said that when in Moscow, Nikulin hacked the company’s computers and installed malware on them, which allowed him to operate them remotely and download user databases and encrypted passwords.

Back in 2016, Nikulin was arrested while traveling in the Czech Republic and later in 2018 he was extradited to the US. His trial was the first case resumed in Northern California since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

During passing the judgment on Nikulin to 88-months imprisonment, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said he was trying to send a message of redressal to hackers, including those who sit abroad, as per the statement issued by San Francisco U.S. Attorney David Anderson.