A grand jury has issued a criminal indictment against Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Nikulin, a 29-year-old Russian accused of hacking LinkedIn, Dropbox and a third web service.
The indictment, filed Thursday, was made public Friday night by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The federal government has now confirmed Nikulin was the Russian citizen arrested in Prague on Wednesday by Czech police.
He was wanted by the FBI in connection with the theft of 117 million LinkedIn passwords and login credentials.
LinkedIn (LNKD, Tech30) had initially claimed that 6.5 million passwords were stolen in the 2012 attack. But in May, the company revealed the theft was actually 117 million.
Nikulin managed to break into the company’s computers in March 2012 because he stole the username and password of a LinkedIn employee who worked at the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters, according to the indictment.
Author: Jose Pagliery