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Russian Hacker, Wanted by F.B.I., Is Arrested in Prague, Czechs Say

132 points| r721 | 9 years ago |nytimes.com | reply

150 comments

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[+] tptacek|9 years ago|reply
Czech Republic a member of European Union: Check!

Czech Republic a NATO Ally: Check!

Computer Crime Illegal In Czech Republic by Czech Law: Check!

Computer Crime Illegal In European Union: Check!

Bilateral Extradition Treaty Present Between US and Czech Republic: Check!

European Union Recognizes Validity Of Bilateral Extradition Treaties With The US: Check!

I am not clear on the basis of Russia's expectation that they're going to get their hacker back soon.

[+] tomashertus|9 years ago|reply
Czech Republic, is supposedly a base of Russia espionage for European Union[1]. There are very close connections between our high-profile politics to people around Putin.[2] My guess is that he will be returned to Russia.

I recommend to read the profile published by Guardian last year on Czech president Milos Zeman.[3]

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/czechrepubl...

[2] http://praguemonitor.com/2016/08/10/zeman-attend-conference-...

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/15/milos-...

[+] yedpodtrzitko|9 years ago|reply
Unfortunately, our (Czech) president is a big friend with Russia/China etc., he actively pulls strings in the background, so I wouldnt be surprised if this scenario would magically happen, somehow.
[+] CiPHPerCoder|9 years ago|reply
> I am not clear on the basis of Russia's expectation that they're going to get their hacker back soon.

That expectation probably has nothing to do with the law or legal means.

[+] petre|9 years ago|reply
Well they can at least ask.
[+] ommunist|9 years ago|reply
On a simple basis that guy is not a hacker, but a completely innocent gigolo, grappled by some career-eager US spies.
[+] usaphp|9 years ago|reply
Where do you get those check marks from? There is not a single word in the article that has a proof of what he did.

Imagine if Russia captured US citizen in Argentina saying he is American hacker who they think hacked Russian servers, I can imagine the outrage of the US and its European puppets.

Also nytimes is incredibly biased against Russia, I would not trust a single word it says.

[+] CiPHPerCoder|9 years ago|reply
No word on who was arrested or who their victims were.

All we have to confirm the story is political posturing from two global superpowers over an arrest in a third country. This sounds like the opening act of a cold war era political struggle. War by proxy, etc.

Can we please not repeat that chapter in history?

Or, if we're going to do so, at least not use hackers as the pawns in this sick game? I'd appreciate at least that much.

[+] dmix|9 years ago|reply
2012 hack on a "west coast company" ... anyone know which hack this might be?

Linkedin maybe? This stirred up controversy in the US gov where they might have invested resources in pursuing the attacker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_LinkedIn_hack

Yahoo's discovery of the big intrusion recently was from 2012 but that might have been too recent?

Also Dropbox was hacked in 2012.

[+] r721|9 years ago|reply
That paragraph was just added, wasn't there a hour ago.

UPD "Suspect believed to be tied to massive LinkedIn hack arrested in Prague, sources say; U.S. officials hope to extradite him to U.S."

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/788754540656898049

“Following the 2012 breach of LinkedIn member information, we have remained actively involved with the FBI’s case to pursue those responsible,” a LinkedIn spokesperson told Motherboard in an email. “We are thankful for the hardwork and dedication of the FBI in its efforts to locate and capture the parties believed to be responsible for this criminal activity.”

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hacker-allegedly-responsibl...

[+] r721|9 years ago|reply
>The indictment, unsealed today, alleges that Nikulin, accessed computers belonging to LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring, each of which has its headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area. The indictment further alleges that the defendant accessed the computers without authorization and that he obtained information from the computers. According to the indictment, the defendant also caused damage to computers belonging to a LinkedIn employee and to Formspring by transmitting a program, information, code, or command. Nikulin also is alleged to have used the 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. In all, Nikulin is charged 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.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/yevgeniy-nikulin-indicted-hac...

[+] codedokode|9 years ago|reply
Isn't it wrong? A person that is not an US citizen, that has never been to US, will be extradited to USA and will probably be convicted to a 10 or 20 years in prison unless he can afford a lawyer that costs several hundreds dollars per hour (because you have to pay for a "fair" trial in USA) for doing the same things NSA does every day. Since when US courts have jurisdiction over other countries?

Obviously this person's rights for a fair trial are violated.

If he is a Russian citizen, shouldn't he be judged in Russia?

Or should we apply the same rules to American citizens? For example, everyone working is NSA or its contractors can probably be prosecuted for taking part in a conspiracy to break into computer systems and intercepting private communications. Should muslim countries arrest any US tourist that have earlier posted pictures with Allah in Facebook and extradite them to Iran for fair trial by Sharia law? And what about people who develop software to bypass Great Chinese Firewall? Should they be extradited to China? US wanted to get Julian Assange, should not China get its enemies too?

[+] plugger|9 years ago|reply
By your logic prosecuting international computer crime wouldn't be possible. How do you expect that to work out in practice?

Also, he was arrested in the Czech Republic, not Russia. The Czech Republic has an extradition treaty with the US that existed long before the Internet did. This isn't rocket appliances, it's how our world's nation state system works. Sure, he probably shouldn't get 20 years and should receive competent legal representation. But to allow anyone to hack computer systems in the US because that person is not a US citizen and not in the US is borderline laughable.

[+] at-fates-hands|9 years ago|reply
This sounds a lot like a thinly veiled attempt to dump a story about a state sponsored hacker being arrested and possibly extradited back to the US. All we've heard for weeks now is how a group of state sponsored Russian hackers were feeding DNC documents to Wikileaks.

The lack of details and the Russian response just sounds fishy to me.

[+] eveningcoffee|9 years ago|reply
the Russian response

History has taught us that it is very hard to pull the truth out of Russian response. You have to observe what they are doing and not what they are saying.

So this by itself does not conclude anything. Also not the opposite, or nothing about the other state level actors.

[+] transfire|9 years ago|reply
Never mind that the material this (allegedly) hacker exposed indicates rampant collusion and fraud that undermine the U.S. election system. Nope, that doesn't matter. The important thing is to stop the dissemination of the truth.
[+] hendzen|9 years ago|reply
If I was Snowden I would be very worried. If the US gets a hold of this guy I could see Putin offering Snowden up as a trade to get him back.
[+] guelo|9 years ago|reply
Doubt it, Snowden has much more propaganda value making Russia look like the good guys protecting the world from evil USA.
[+] epoxyhockey|9 years ago|reply
The arrest happened 2 weeks ago, but is being reported just now? Interesting timing..
[+] rbanffy|9 years ago|reply
Wether he ends up extradited or not is largely irrelevant. The US sent the message Russian hackers who are suspects of engaging in cyber warfare better not leave Russia. Russia is trying to counter it and assert its dominance in the region and the Czech Republic is in the uncomfortable middle.
[+] jMyles|9 years ago|reply
> David Schön, a police spokesman, said on Wednesday that the arrest of the man, whose name has not been released, was not announced immediately “for tactical reasons.”

That's two high-profile "info criminals" in a row given the secret arrest treatment.

I can't say I'm a fan.

[+] ommunist|9 years ago|reply
Read to the end "It appears that the man arrested in Prague is not related to the hackers Mr. Clapper described." Bravo. This should be the title.
[+] linkregister|9 years ago|reply
That is some incredible burying of the lede. Well spotted!
[+] yread|9 years ago|reply
> The Russian Embassy in Prague, however, called for the man to be released.

> “We insist that the detained Russian citizen should be transferred to Russia,”

Released or transferred to Russia? And why is the speculation from Janda there - he is no security expert? Where do the suggestions there is a link to DNC hack come from? He could easily be just running a botnet, blackmailing or a thousand other things... Really RT-level article here

[+] walshemj|9 years ago|reply
Driving around in a luxury cars sounds more like a regular criminal than some one working for the FSB etc.
[+] moon_of_moon|9 years ago|reply
Dobry den. Don't forget to remove your binary from target.
[+] gjolund|9 years ago|reply
Guccifer2.0?
[+] divbyzer0|9 years ago|reply
Unlikely to be him, he tweeted last night. The person referred to in the article was arrested a few days ago.
[+] usaphp|9 years ago|reply
You comparing Stalin to Hitler? Are people mad these days?
[+] pyre|9 years ago|reply
Why would it be mad? Because Hitler singled out an ethnic group for extermination in addition to political opponents rather than just killing off political opponents? They both racked up a comparable body-counts of their own people as rulers (well, enough for both to be consider mass-murders, though I understand that Stalin had a high body-count).
[+] mnx|9 years ago|reply
Why not? This seems like a fairly common comparison, made by actual historians. Some estimate that Stalins death toll may exceed that of Hitler.
[+] knowaveragejoe|9 years ago|reply
I'd love to hear your reasoning why the comparison is so wildly incorrect that it earns this response.
[+] hanklazard|9 years ago|reply
Both were dictators who killed millions. Seems like a reasonable comparison.
[+] guelo|9 years ago|reply
They were both dictators that killed millions of their own citizens.
[+] redthrowaway|9 years ago|reply
Stalin killed far more people than Hitler, and Mao killed far more people than Stalin. I'm not sure where this instinct to give brutal dictators a pass so long as they were leftists comes from, but it makes no sense.
[+] zde|9 years ago|reply

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[+] usaphp|9 years ago|reply

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[+] tptacek|9 years ago|reply
People can imagine all sorts of things, but the US already has solid evidence that Russia is behind a number of US hacks. Not only that, but the US has already said Russia is behind those attacks; it would actually harm their argument if they built a giant PR campaign around this dude, because it would call into question the previous attribution.

I can imagine this going like this:

1. They extradite this guy to the USA.

2. They indict him for hacking, try him, and find him guilty.

3. He serves 4.3 years in federal prison.

4. He is released, returns to Russia, and we never hear about him again.

[+] endisukaj|9 years ago|reply
That seems highly unlikely.
[+] missbit|9 years ago|reply
Is hacking really a crime? If your computer was secure, then the hacker could not hack. So.. who's fault is it?
[+] detaro|9 years ago|reply
If your house were secure, the burglar couldn't have gotten in and stolen your stuff. or stabbed you. So... who's fault is it?

(There is a whole other can of worms regarding what counts as "hacking" and what doesn't, but without knowing what the "hacker" actually did we can't really discuss it in this case)

[+] mark_edward|9 years ago|reply
If it was a legitimate hack, a woman's computer has a way of shutting that down.