Russian who hacked LinkedIn, Dropbox gets 88-month prison term

Yevgeniy Nikulin stole logins of 117 million users of LinkedIn, Dropbox and the defunct social media site Formspring.

In sentencing Nikulin to 88 months in prison, US District Judge William Alsup said he was trying to send a message of deterrence to hacker.  (Pixabay)

A Russian hacker was sentenced to more than seven years in a US prison for stealing the logins of 117 million users of LinkedIn, Dropbox and the defunct social media site Formspring, according to federal prosecutors.

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

Prosecutors said that while in Moscow, Nikulin hacked into the company's computers and installed malware on them, which allowed him to control them remotely and download user databases, including encrypted passwords.

He was arrested while traveling in the Czech Republic in 2016 and extradited to the US. 

His trial was the first in Northern California since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

In sentencing Nikulin to 88 months in prison, US District Judge William Alsup said he was trying to send a message of deterrence to hackers, including those who operate abroad, according to a statement issued by San Francisco US Attorney David Anderson.